Remembering You
by Shining Arrows
Summary: Despite knowing that the other was special, Taki and Mitsuha lack the memories to know why. Their connection granted by Musubi guaranteed that they would meet again, but it's up to them to bring back their memories.
1. I: The Fateful Stairway

Thank you for giving this fanfic a try, and I hope you enjoy!

* * *

 _Tears of joy flowed from her eyes down her cheeks._

 _A smile of undeniable joy painted itself onto his face._

 _"Can I ask you...your name?"_

* * *

 _Chapter I: The Fateful Stairway_

* * *

The busy Tokyo life moved rapidly right before her eyes, outside the window of the cafe. Each person walked with contentment lifting their step, and moved with purpose driving them forward. The desire to advance and develop was palpable amongst the residents of Tokyo, Mitsuha noted. The city's grandeur had caught her attention ever since she was a child, and had yet to cease to captivate her with its alluring beauty.

The gleaming white metropolis constrasted heavily with Itomori. Prior to the fission of Tiamat that destroyed the town beyond repair, Itomori placed an emphasis on the allure of nature. The greens and the blues and the browns all weaved together to form a tapestry that appealed to many. Mitsuha, however, found that Itomori was much too quiet for her liking. And so, the news that the Miyamizu family would move to Tokyo were receieved very well by her, if tinged with sorrow over her quiet town's destruction.

Despite the excitement that Tokyo never seemed to run out of, as Mitsuha settled in, it became more and more difficult for her to deny the feeling that she was missing something or someone. Someone she didn't want to forget. Someone she shouldn't forget. There was an empty void in her that should've been filled, _that previously was filled_ , but for some reason had been taken from her. The already quiet teen turned into an even more reserved adult as the longing grew stronger and stronger within her.

But suddenly, as she was staring forlornly out the window of the subway, looking for anything that might spark memories of what she was searching for, her eyes met with a man she hadn't met but whose face awoke a plethora of emotions she had long since experienced. By the way his eyes lit up with recognition, she assumed that the sight of her did the same.

And so as soon as the subway stopped, she raced out. The longing and loneliness had receded to give way for determination to find the man who could unveil so much feeling within her that she had thought lost. The search ended at the stairway, Mitsuha standing at the top, looking down at the brown hair and brown eyes that she knew so well but _didn't_ at the same time.

Anxiety bounced around in her stomach as the man made no attempt to call out to her, but instead began to ascend the stairs. Feeling numb, she decided to begin her descent. Each step felt like an eternity to her, as she drew closer to him. The butterflies in her stomach were flying ever so quickly, and try as she might, any attempt to squash them were met with no success.

Finally, Mitsuha reached a point where he was now three steps below her. Now two...Now one...

They passed each other in the blink of an eye. Both of them slowed but did not stop. Now they were no longer moving towards each other, rather, they were creating distance.

Mitsuha tightly clutched her purse as the desire to say something, _say anything,_ threatened to rip its way out her mouth. But as great as the desire was, the fear that she was imagining things, the fear that this man did not actually recognize her, the fear that she would ultimately be rejected kept the desire firmly in check.

Four steps, five steps, six steps...The distance between them grew greater and greater, and yet she remained unable to do anything.

" _Why?"_ she screamed internally. " _Why?"_ Tears began to form at the corners of her eyes, more than ready to spill out. Her foot was right about to reach the midpoint of the stairway when-

"Excuse me!"

She froze as she heard the voice from behind her ring out, desperation clear in its tone. She turned slowly to its source, who had reached the top of the stairway. As her eyes made contact with his, she nearly gasped. His eyes were akin to a mirror, where she saw her recognition reflected.

"Haven't we met before?"

The tears that had been more than ready to fall out did just that – but these were tears of joy. A laugh of joy escaped from her as the joyful tears continued to fall out. "I thought so, too!" she breathed.

Tears of joy flowed from her eyes down her cheeks.

An smile of undeniable joy painted itself onto his face.

"Can I ask you...your name?"

* * *

Author's Note:

3/24/18 edit: very minor details, nothing important.

A bit slow on the introduction, I suppose.

Thank you very much for reading this! I would love to hear your feedback, so please consider writing a review!

I plan to update this fic every Wednesday, so stay tuned for that!

Thank you very much, and I hope you have a good day :)


	2. II: Déjà vu?

_The number of questions asked between the two of them might've been akin to that of an interrogation, but deep down, Mitsuha couldn't shake the feeling that she already knew everything Taki was telling her and that she was merely confirming those details._

 _'It's nothing,' she told herself. 'Just déjà vu.'_

* * *

 _Chapter Two: Déjà vu?_

* * *

"Miyamizu-san?"

Mitsuha's train of thought was broken as a kind voice said her name. The owner of the voice looked at her with slightly concerned eyes, offering her a frappucino. "Oh, sorry," she replied with an apologetic smile, one that he returned. She took the coffee from him and set it in front of her as he slid into the seat adjacent to hers.

 _Tachibana Taki. His name is Tachibana Taki..._

"We didn't really have a proper introduction back at the stairway," Taki murmured sheepishly. Indeed, they hadn't. Immediately after exchanging their names, they had quickly walked to the closest cafe to talk in a more private area. He held his hand out to her. "My name is Tachibana Taki. It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Miyamizu Mitsuha," she replied, taking his hand and shaking it. "It's nice to meet you as well," she added.

He let go of her hand and took a sip of his coffee. A giggle almost escaped from her as he winced. " _You're not a child, Mitsuha!"_ she chided. " _Get a hold of yourself!"_ Clearing her throat, she said the statement both of them had been thinking since they passed each other on the trains: "I'm not sure why, but you seem very familiar."

Taki nodded in affirmation. "I thought the same. I'm certain that I've heard your name before, but I can't pinpoint from where." Mitsuha hummned in agreement. "I grew up in Tokyo," Taki continued, turning to face her. " perhaps we were in the same class in elementary or junior high school?"

Mitsuha could tell from the doubt his eyes that he already knew that she wasn't from Tokyo. "No, I'm from a small town named Itomori." His eyes grew wide at the mention of her former hometown. "What?" she inquired while leaning slightly closer to him, curious to know why Itomori shocked him.

"Itomori," he said slowly and unsurely. "The town that was destroyed by Tiamat years ago?"

"Yes, that one," she confirmed, tone lowering in sadness. Despite the fact that she hadn't particularly liked life in Itomori, she would've never wished for the tragedy that was Tiamat.

"Ah, I apologize if I brought up any memories, Miyamizu-san," Taki backpedalled, observing the change in her voice. Mitsuha's lips curved upwards ever so slightly to form a sad smile in response.

"It was a while ago," she sighed, closing her eyes. After a moment of silence, they fluttered open again. "Why the curiosity, Tachibana-san?"

"I visited Itomori five years ago, in my third year of high school. I don't know why," he added quickly as Mitsuha opened her mouth. "but I had this obsession with Itomori. I read everything I could find about it when Tiamat struck, during my last year in junior high. All the news articles, everything. But...I didn't even know anybody from Itomori." His voice trailed off towards the end, making it clear that confusion that had afflicted him three years ago still resided within him.

"Well...you know me now!" She smiled to ease the tension.

Taki chuckled slightly. "Yeah, I guess so. Since you're the Itomori expert here, how was life there? It must be much different from here..."

The atmosphere between them changed to that of a more upbeat one, and the initial awkwardness that came with meeting someone new melted rapidly as two exchanged details of their lives.

' _He was born_ _and always lived in Tokyo_ _,_ _he wants to be an architect, and he's three years younger than me,_ _'_ Mitsuha listed in her head as she compiled the details of his life. The last detail shocked her somewhat. He seemed very mature for being three years her junior.

In return, she told him about her life in Itomori ("Sounds very naturey," he said), her life as a shrine maiden ("So this is my first time talking to a shrine maiden then," he said in between spurts of laughter. Her face turned ever so slightly red), about Sayaka and Tessie ("They sound like good people," he observed. She heartily disagreed.), her job as a fashion designer ("No wonder you look so good." Her face turned ever more red.), about Yotsuha ("Ahhh, she sounds like the coolest person ever!").

The number of questions asked between the two of them might've been akin to that of an interrogation, but deep down, Mitsuha couldn't shake the feeling that she already knew everything Taki was telling her and that she was merely confirming those details.

' _It's nothing,'_ she told herself. ' _Just déjà vu.'_ Having convinced herself of that, if temporarily, she lost herself in conversing with Taki. His cheerful disposition, dry wit, and kindness completely dominated her interest, and hours passed by without either of them noticing.

Mitsuha stumbled out the door of the cafe, laughing so hardly that she had difficulty breathing, and a chuckling Taki followed suit. The door behind them slammed shut and the "open" sign was hastily flipped over by a glaring man.

"Sorry!" they called out in between spurts of laughter . The glare remained, only disappearing when the blinds were snapped shut.

"I guess we're not welcome there anymore," she giggled. Taki's laughter continued, a response in itself. Their laughter slowly faded to silence, leaving a wide smile of content on both of their faces. Mitsuha walked over to the cafe terrace before her. The winding streets, the tall skyscrapers, the bright and vibrant life she saw from it truly amazed her.

She felt Taki move next to her, the sleeve of his suit touching her arm. _'_ _Living in Tokyo and_ _finally not feeling like I'm always searching for something,_ _'_ she mused absentmindedly. ' _This really_ _is_ _a dream.'_

"Miyamizu-san," Taki said, breaking her thoughts. She turned her head to face him.

"Hmm?"

"I really enjoyed this afternoon. A-and the evening." A blush appeared on both of their faces as the realization that they had spent hours simply talking hit them full force.

"I really enjoyed it, too, Tachibana-san," she echoed.

"I hope I didn't keep you from anything," Taki blurted suddenly, nervously scratching the back of his head. She shook her head slowly, smiling to ease his worries. "No, today's my day off. And even if I did have work," Mitsuha said as Taki opened his mouth, probably to apologize again. "today was so much more important."

Finally, Taki eased up. "I'm glad." They turned back to view the Tokyo skyline. As Mitsuha watched the busy night life of the grand city, a question that she had been dying to ask surfaced from her subconcious and made its way to the tip of her tongue. But the fear that had prevented her from calling out to him on the stairway hours earlier put its curse on her tongue again.

 _'Why?'_ she asked herself, stealing a glance at him. She had to admit, he did look quite handsome, especially with the moon gently lighting his features. ' _Stay on topic, Mitsuha,'_ she admonished herself. ' _It shouldn't be a big deal, to ask for his number. Yotsuha's done it plenty of times!'_

Try as she might, however, she couldn't muster the courage to just ask. A couple of moments later, Taki ended her struggle. "I really enjoyed today, so..I was wondering if we could do it again some time," he said, startling her.

"Y-yes, of course!" The words flew out of her mouth in relief.

"Well, in that case," he replied, looking slightly taken aback from her sudden outburst. "could I have your number? We can arrange something from there."

She recited it to him, double checking to make sure it was the right one. She even went as far as to request that he send her a message to be certain. When her phone buzzed lightly, she rushed to take it out of her purse, nearly dropping it in the process.

"Hi, this is Tachibana Taki! It's a pleasure to meet you!" the text read. She looked up. "It's a pleasure to meet you as well, Tachibana Taki."

"Good, the message went through. We can arrange another time to meet up."

With his message firmly in her inbox, any remaining uncertainty she had melted away. Eight years of searching had ended, and she intended to make the most of what she found.

"Sorry Miyamizu-san, but I need to get home," Taki said with reluctance slowing his voice.

"No, of course. I'll see you sometime soon?" she asked, internally cringing at how desperate she sounded.

"Yes, of course. See you soon!"

And with that, Mitsuha stared after Taki as he walked down to the train station. "Bye..." she sighed. Long after he disappeared from her sight, she walked the opposite direction to the other train station.

Already, she felt like she missed him.

The door to Mitsuha's apartment opened quietly, and its owner stepped through, hardly making any noise. "I'm back," she called out softly.

Light footsteps similar to hers could be heard as Yotsuha Miyamizu peeked outside of her room. "Onee-chan, why are you so late?" she whispered, pulling out her phone and showing her the time. It read 22:48.

"I met someone really special, that's all," Mitsuha replied, setting her purse down on the kitchen table. There was a bounce in her step that hadn't been there previously, and hints of a smile just _dying_ to break out on her lips.

"Who?" Yotsuha questioned, wide-eyed at the change she saw in her sister. "No one I know would make you act this happy..."

"His name is Tachibana Taki," Mitsuha all but sang. She made her way to the room adjacent to Yotsuha's, and closed the door. The younger Miyamizu could only stare, dumbfounded.

"She's acting weird again..."

Mitsuha collapsed onto her bed, staring at the ceiling. The past few hours had been all manners of happiness, but draining nonetheless. Already exhausted, it didn't take long until sleep's warm embrace took her.

The soft buzzing of her phone failed to wake her. But if it did, she would've instantly opened the texts Taki sent her.

" _Good evening, Miyamizu-san! I hope you got home safely!_

 _I was wondering if you were free next Saturday._ _We could grab coffee or lunch if you want._

 _I hope to hear from you soon!"_

* * *

AN:

I'm so sorry I wasn't able to update this last Wednesday. I had a standard 800 word chapter done, but I felt it was sorely lacking. So I scrapped it and rewrote the nearly 1700 word monstrosity this chapter is.

Future chapters will be under 1000 words. This 1700 word chapter is just because I skipped a week.

I think you all can tell where the next chapter is going. I'm hope you're as excited to read about Taki and Mitsuha's interactions as much as I'm excited to write them!

As always, thank you for reading, and please consider leaving a review. It really helps me write better!


	3. III: Date?

_"Um...well..." Mitsuha started, feeling a bit warm from the question she was about to ask. "Can I call you Taki-kun?"_

* * *

 _Chapter III: Date?_

* * *

For the twentieth time in the past five minutes, Mitsuha anxiously pressed the home button of her iPhone. It lit up, a picture of Yotsuha, her grandmother, and herself at Yotsuha's junior high school graduation ceremony smiling back up at her. Normally, she'd take note of how pretty Yotsuha looked, but her interest lied in the four numbers at the top of the screen.

 _'19:34...I'm already four minutes late!'_ she fretted. To her growing dismay, the four at the end advanced one more minute to make her exactly five minutes late.

Mitsuha slouched in her seat on the subway, letting her hand fall to her sides. ' _Can this subway go any faster? This is all Yotsuha's fault, and stupid Apple's fault for not making their battery last longer!'_ she ranted inside of her head, blaming absolutely everything but herself for her tardiness.

Resigned to the fact that she would be late, Mitsuha unlocked her phone and quickly tapped out a text to Taki. "I'm so sorry, but I'm going to be late :(" He responded almost immediately. "No worries, Miyamizu-san! I'll meet you in front of the restaurant!"

Relief flooded through her as she read his reply. " _Good, he'll_ _wait._ _"_ She covered her face with her hands as that momentary relief was rapidly replaced with guilt. "Ahhhh!" she groaned, drawing the attention of nearby passengers. She hardly noticed, as deep in her despair as she was.

Her main concern was in coming up with a reasonable excuse for why she was late. ' _Because the real reason is...just too embarassing!"_ She thought back to not twenty minutes ago, when she had still been in her apartment, still getting ready.

* * *

A confused Yotsuha peered into her elder sister's room. Normally it was kept quite tidy, with all the clothes neatly arranged and hung in the closet in the corner and all work related items placed on her desk.

This certainly wasn't the case at that very moment. The room was in all manners of being in disarray, with several pairs of shirts and pants resting on her bed, different varieties of socks on her desk, and a myriad of dresses on the floor.

It was very possible that the object in the state of most disarray was Mitsuha herself, who paced back and forth between the dresses and the shirts and pants. She was frantically murmuring to herself, unsure of whether she should wear a dress or go for a more casual look.

"Onee-chan, don't you have a date with Taki-sama right now?" Yotsuha questioned.

"It's not a date!" Mitsuha whirled around to glare at her sister. "And don't call him that, it's embarrassing!" she continued, going back to walking back and forth between the dresses and pants.

"It's a date if you're this worried about how you look," the younger Miyamizu muttered. Mitsuha paid the comment no mind. After another minute of shifting back and forth, Mitsuha finally gave up and just collapsed back onto her bed, crumpling a pair of pants in the process.

"Yotsuhaaaaaaa," she whined, something a woman her age _really_ shouldn't be doing. "What should I do? Should I just cancel?"

"Ehh?!" Yotsuha's eyes widened. "All you've been talking about this whole week is about this date and now you want to cancel?!"

"No, I really want to go, but..." Her voice calmed down to a sigh. "What if he doesn't like the way I look?"

A sigh of exasperation left Yotsuha as she walked into the room and picked the nearest dress up off of the floor. "Dark blue, doesn't show too much skin," she appraised it quietly, examining it this way and that. She threw it at Mitsuha. "Put that on and go!"

Exactly one minute later, Mitsuha was shoved out the door. She was adorned in a dark blue dress and a jacket, purse in one hand, signature red ribbon in the other. She moved to open the door, but couldn't budge the doorknob.

"Yotsuha, let me in!" she yelled. "Sorry, Onee-chan!" Yotsuha's muffled voice sounded from the other side, hints of laughter ruining the apology. "Enjoy your date with Taki-sama!"

Left with no options, Mitsuha turned and ran for the station.

* * *

She smoothed the dress down, noting that the fabric was rather soft. It was a modest dress, going past her knees and exposing no cleavage. _'I suppose I should be glad Yotsuha_ _didn't give me something scandalous_ _.'_ She shuddered at the thought.

Mitsuha took another glance out the window. In the distance, but approaching quickly, she could see the large words of the restaurant she and Taki had agreed to meet at. "Il Giardino Delle Parol," she read slowly. A rueful glance at her agenda list confirmed that she was at the right place. "Meet at Il Giardino Delle Parol with Taki at 19:30." The phone said the time was 19:41.

After what seemed like an eternity, the subway train finally pulled into the station. Mitsuha made her way out of the crowded station, cursing her decision to set the time of the date as the same time many people left work, and ran for the restaurant.

She caught sight of Taki in front of the grand Italian doors and immediately slowed to a walk, wanting to regain her composure before meeting him. She took a few moments to calm her breathing, and fiddled with her hair. Once satisfied with her appearance, she approached Taki, who was engrossed in his phone.

"Tachibana-san?" she said to get his attention. His gaze snapped from his phone to her as he let out a noise of surprise.

"Ah, you're here! Scared me," he chuckled, scratching the back of his head. He looked her up and down, this being his first time seeing her in a dress. "You look beautiful, Miyamizu-san."

The compliment brought a flush of red to her cheeks as she stuttered out a thanks, inwardly berating herself for acting like a middle schooler on their first date. ' _And it's not even a date, either!'_

"You look good as well," she scrambled around for words, unsure of what to say.

It wasn't a dishonest compliment. Dressed in a dark blue suit, Taki looked sharp and in her honest opinion, quite handsome.

"Oh, um...thank you very much!" He scratched the back of his head again, and Mitsuha felt very relieved when she saw a hint of red on his cheeks. ' _I'm not the only one that's acting like a middle schooler on their first date,"_ she thought triumphantly, but was soon brought back to reality upon the realization that... she was still acting as if she was on her first date. ' _And this isn't a date!'_

"Shall we?" Taki interrupted her fall from victory, gesturing towards the doors. They walked through the grand double door together and she marveled at the grand interior of the restaurant. ' _All teenage awkwardness asid_ _e, this really is a nice place,'_ she thought to herself as she glanced around the large space, taking note of all the intricacies.

Dozens of tables topped with expensive-looking olive green cloth stood on a dark, wooden floor. Each table was lit with the orange glow of candlelight and the soft yellows of glass chandeliers placed on the ceiling. A stairway with elaborate hand rails led to a terrace which provided a view of a small lake, complete with a dock. Cyprus trees were sprinkled throughout the area and in the interior of the restaurant, bringing some of Italy to Tokyo. As her eyes traced all the details of the place, a mysterious familiarity took over her.

They were quickly seated by a bubbly waitress in a black and white uniform. Mitsuha took a seat directly across from Taki. "This really is a nice restaurant," she commented after the waitress had walked off to get their drinks.

"Yes, it is. I used to work here, though, so I might be a little biased." Taki's eyes sweeped through the interior of the space, before making full circle to come in contact with Mitsuha's. "That was a little while ago, though. It's changed a little since then. Have you been here before?"

"No, but I wish had!" She responded as she smiled at the waitress who had returned to deliver their drinks. "I might've ended this feeling of searching for someone earlier if I had..." she thought, her gaze dropping to the fine tableclotch.

"Miyamizu-san?"

Blood rushed to her face as she mentally facepalmed. ' _I said that out loud?!'_ "Sorry, did I say something?" she asked, feigning ignorance. ' _He's too polite to press the subject.'_

As expected, Taki didn't question any further. "Oh, no...I thought you did." It was at this point that the waitress made a miraculous appearance and cut the topic short by asking if they were ready to order. She gratefully picked up a menu and skimmed through the restuarant's many dishes. From pizzas to pastas to lasagna to salads, this restaurant seemed to have it all.

Mitsuha ended up ordering a lasagna and Taki ordered a meatball pizza. In the time during the preparation of their meals, Mitsuha and Taki fell into the same loop of comfortable conversation as they had at the cafe immediately after meeting.

"You said you used to work here, so where do you work now?" Mitsuha inquired.

"Well, I've wanted to be an architect for a really long time, and I was hired just today! I actually finished my entry interview not too long ago," he answered excitedly, his earnest tone and bright eyes conveying the passion with which he viewed his job.

"That explains the suit, then. But congratulations!" She smiled warmly, happy for his success. "It's great that you're doing what you've wanted to do for a living."

"Yeah, it really is. How's your job going, Miyamizu-san?"

"It's going well. My boss told our team that sales are going well, so I'm really glad about that."

"Yeah, that's good news for you. You never told me, what kind of clothes do you design?"

"I design for teenagers," Mitsuha explained, leaning forward slightly as she talked about her job, which she rather liked. "and as for what kind of clothes, I mostly work in accessories."

"Like the ribbon you have right now?" he asked, leaning slightly to the side to catch a glimpse of it.

"Oh, this?" She turned her head so he could get a better look. "No, this is just a gift from my grandmother. It's a bit old fashioned," she continued, returning her head to its normal position.

"No, it looks really good on you," Taki said, studying her carefully before shaking his head. "Sorry, but I feel like I've seen that ribbon before." Mitsuha hummed, deep in thought as to where Taki might've seen a braided cord, given that not many would bother to spend the hours upon hours required to intricately weave together the threads that would eventually twist and converge, becoming the ribbon in her hair.

As she continued to ponder, Mitsuha began to recall a memory – a memory that was distorted and faint. The dark and blurry images that passed through her mind allowed her to make out nothing, but she could _just_ hear a muffled version of her own voice, crying out. _"Mitsuha! My name is...Mitsuha!"_ With a crisp clarity the rest of the scene did not share, she saw her red ribbon moving away from her. It remained in free fall for a few moments, its bright red and gold colors dimly sparkling.

Mitsuha watched as a hand firmly grabbed the ribbon. Its soft glow illuminated just enough so that she could see the face that belonged to the hand, but _he was looking away._ She strained her eyes find some detail, _any detail,_ anything she could use to piece together his identity. Just as she was beginning to give up, his hand began to move the ribbon to his pocket. At the same time, his face started to turn towards her. The ribbon's light faded as he continued to place it into his pocket, but there was an instant, _just a fraction of a second,_ where his face was fully visible...

"Miyamizu-san?"

The memory faded as quickly as it had come, leaving confusion in its wake. She started with a jolt as she returned to Il Giardino Delle Parol. Mitsuha blinked a few times, slightly disoriented from the contrast between the darkness of the memory and the brightness of restaurant.

"Miyamizu-san?"

The tone of his voice carried more concern as he said her name again, the urgency snapping her from her stupor. "Ah, I'm sorry Tachibana-san. I was lost in thought," she said, rubbing her eyes with her hand. When she uncovered her eyes, she was suddenly struck with surprise and realization.

And as Taki went on to explain his perfectly reasonable concern, she couldn't help but listen to a small voice in the back of her head.

' _The face_ _I_ _saw in the memory... It really looks a lot like Taki...'_

They exited the Italian restaurant just as they had exited the cafe five days before: in laughter. This time though, it wasn't because they had just been chewed out by an annoyed shopkeeper for staying past closing time.

"I can't imagine how kuchikamisake would taste," Taki sputtered with great difficulty as laughs punctuated his words. The topic had been brought about by Taki ordering sake, to which Mitsuha randomly recounted the particular duty of preparing kuchikamisake in great detail. He seemed to find the most humor in the part where she would allow the rice dissolved in saliva to slowly dribble out from her lips. Perhaps it was the alcohol from the few shots of sake she had shared with him, but Mitsuha was feeling a bit giggly herself.

They both boarded a subway headed for her apartment. "I just want to make sure you get home safely," Taki insisted when she said she didn't need him to walk her home. She made her way to her apartment, Taki at her side, and they conversed lightly about random things – a comedian's Instagram post, Taki's suit that all of his friends seemed to mock, a cat that ran infront of them.

They arrived a few minutes after eleven, she noted. Mitsuha sighed and prepared herself for the inevitable teasing that Yotsuha would dish out.

"Well, we're here!" she announced, only a few steps from the door. She turned around. "Thank you for today, Tachibana-san. I had a lot of fun." Her evening had indeed been very entertaining and she owed that to Taki.

"Me too," he replied with a grin. "I'll be sure to remember you drooling rice whenever I have sake." Laughter broke out from him as she scowled lightly, but after a couple moments, her laughter joined his. It was a little while before the noise finally abated, and they were left in silence. She hugged her arms, a question she had been wanting to ask for a while forming at the tip of her tongue.

"Miyamizu-san-"

"Tachi-"

They stared at each other for a few moments before Mitsuha started laughing yet again. ' _What is wrong with me? I'm so giggly right now..'_

"Sorry, go ahead," Taki apologized, the usually light smile on his face replaced with seriousness. ' _Whatever he was going to say, it wasn't a joke.'_

"Um...well..." Mitsuha started, feeling a bit warm from the question she was about to ask. "Can I call you Taki-kun?"

Despite the fact that she had mulled over this question more than she liked to admit, Mitsuha had never actually said it out loud. She was surprised that his name rolled out of her mouth smoothly, almost instinctually.

"Oh...um..." Now it was Taki's turn to blush. "Yeah," he said after a long pause. They stood there awkwardly for a few moments. Mitsuha, not being much of a forward person, was still getting over the fact that she had actually worked up the courage to ask.

"Taki-kun, it wouldn't be right for you to call me Miyamizu-san," she said, trying out his name once more. She locked her eyes with his before continuing: "Just call me Mitsuha."

"Mitsuha," he repeated. A crooked grin formed on his face. "Sounds much better."

Hearing him say her name in the way that he did set off an explosion of joy for her. The way he said her name might've been confusingly familiar but _it sounded so right,_ just like how Taki's name sounded so much better when she said it. _'Why that is, I don't know...but I want to find out.'_

The serious expression came back on Taki's face to mask the grin that had been there. "You were going to say something, right?" she realized. "Sorry."

"No, it's alright." He brushed off her apology. "I just..." He trailed off, his eyes narrowed in tight concentration. "There was something you said earlier, at the restaurant." She tensed for a moment, but still kept contact with his eyes. "Something about..." He stopped for a moment, doubt clouding his eyes. "Searching for somebody."

She deflated a little, knowing that she couldn't avoid the topic any longer. "Yes," she confirmed. "Ever since the day the meteor came, I had this feeling like I was searching for somebody. Until I met you." She added, smiling brightly in an attempt to lift the mood a little.

Taki hummed lightly in response. Then he spoke again, slowly and cautiously. "I've felt the same way. Like I've been searching for someone." Mitsuha's breath caught at the admission. "It wasn't just me, then?" she breathed. He shook his head solemnly.

There were many questions floating around in Mitsuha's mind, each begging to be asked. ' _How long have you felt this way? How exactly does it feel?'_ These were questions that she would ask in the future and she had no doubt Taki would answer them. Right now, she was already keeping him out quite late.

But there was a question that she so desperately desired the answer for that neither Taki nor herself could answer. ' _What caused us this feeling of loneliness and searching, and why did we both feel it?"_

Without a doubt in her mind, she knew that the answer to that question would elude her. It would be a difficult journey, the answer lying shrouded at the peak of a mountain she would need to climb.

' _But..._ _This time,_ _I'm not alone.'_

The man standing before her looked at her with confusion and uncertainty in his eyes, but through the cloud of doubt, genuine care and concern shone through. And she knew, without a sliver of doubt, that her eyes reflected what was in his. She'd find the answers she sought, Taki at her side.

"Mitsuha?"

Her thoughts paused as he said her name. "I spaced off again, didn't I?" she asked with a nervous laugh. "Sorry. You've just given me a lot to think about, Taki-kun."

"No, don't worry about it."

They stood together in silence until Taki spoke up. "Thanks for tonight, Mitsuha. I should probably get back home," he said, sheepishly grinning. "Work begins tomorrow. Wouldn't want to be late."

She laughed gently. "No, you wouldn't. And I wouldn't forgive you if you let yourself be late because you were spending time with me," she responded, wagging her finger in a chiding manner, before bursting into giggles.

"Well, I can't have that," Taki said, laughing with her. He waved his hand in a farewell. "Good evening, Mitsuha."

"Good evening, Taki-kun!"

Her eyes followed Taki as he departed, watching him until she could no longer see him. With a content sigh, she unlocked her door and walked into her apartment.

 _I'm not alone._

 _Not anymore._

* * *

A/N: I skipped a week again, I'm really sorry!

The problem is that I didn't really know where to end this chapter. So I just decided to keep adding onto it until I found a good stopping point.

That being said, now that we have Mitsuha and Taki referring to each other by the right names, I think I can finally do away with each of them being formal with each other. This is where the fun begins.

I originally had a scene with Hitoha (Mitsuha and Yotsuha's grandmother) planned, but I think I've got enough here. Maybe some other time.

Some other news: I watched the English dub trailer for Your Name! It's...a bit disappointing, actually. Taki's voice actor's performance was good, although I'm not sure how it'll hold up when Taki talks in a more feminine manner when they switch bodies. However...Mitsuha's English voice actor really irks me. Mitsuha's soft voice ties pretty well into her personality, and the English voice actor doesn't reflect that well at all.

But we'll see! I look forward to seeing the movie in a week and I suggest all the readers here to do so as well. Please support Shinkai and CoMix Wave Films!

Responses to reviewers:

Prietar: I'm glad you're enjoying the fic! If you have any suggestions, please feel free to tell me about those!

Pokeevee57: I'm glad you're enjoying it :) While I think the movie ended at a good point, we all can't help but wonder what happens to Mitsuha and Taki after they've met again.

Dwarrior: Thanks for the kind words! I can't wait to show all of you what happens next, as well ;)

CampfireStories: Glad you're enjoying it! I hope I can keep you interested!

Loveless Fantasy: I hope you enjoyed reading this much longer chapter! And thanks to your kind words, a maximum chapter length of around 1600 words has been removed. I hope I can keep your interest in this fic, short chapters or long! Thank you!

Thanks again to all reviewers. You really do help with the process of writing :)


	4. IV: Approval

_"Taki-san is...a good person." Sayaka admitted almost grudgingly. The anxiety in Mitsuha was pushed aside by hope._

 _"Really? So you approve?"_

* * *

 _Chapter IV: Approval_

* * *

Mitsuha could only stare in wonder as Sayaka and her father walked slowly and deliberately down the dark red aisle of the chapel. Her best friend looked absolutely stunning in the silky white wedding dress. It was simple yet elegant. She couldn't be happier for her.

Sayaka's eyes darted around the room, from the rows of pews in front of her to the pastor to her father to the pews again to the ceiling then to the floor. The hand of her arm that wasn't linked with her father's was nervously clenched into a fist. None of this, however, could detract from the radiant smile that through the veil on Sayaka's face.

' _I wonder if I'll look as beautiful as you do when on my wedding day.'_ Mitsuha's thoughts traveled momentarily to some unknown date in the future, where she was the one adorned in the beautiful white dress. A man in a black suit stood next to her. While she couldn't see his face, it looked uncannily like the profile of Taki – ' _Bad, bad, bad! Don't get ahead of yourself! You're_ _don't even know if you're dating yet!_ _'_ she chided herself.

Her future wedding was a frequent daydream of hers since the day she saw her first wedding as a child. Her daydream played out just like that what she remembered of that momentuous day of union, save for the person standing next to her. As her interest shifted from one boy to another, her brain filled in the profile of the person standing next to her.

Around the time Itomori was destroyed, Mitsuha had lost interest for boys altogether. Her mind still wandered to imagining what her wedding day might be, but try as she might, she could never make out who was standing next to her.

Now, all she ever saw was the profile of Taki. And strangely enough, part of her felt like it had been his profile there the whole time.

The bride and her father came to a halt in front of the altar. Tessie, who had been waiting on the altar next to the priest, bowed solemnly to Sayaka's father. The bow was returned, and he silently relinquished his arm from Sayaka.

"Okay, folks, I think we've reached a good stopping point!" the pastor announced. Tessie and Sayaka's postures deflated in relief. "Good rehearsal, Sayaka and Katsuhiko."

"Thank you," they both responded. The pastor was of Itomorian origins and knew the bride and the groom well enough to do away with any formalities.

"When do I throw the flowers?" Yotsuha asked, staring at the pink and red petals in the basket she clutched in her hand. Her dress as a flower girl reflected her job well; she was dressed in a long dress that had patterns of flowers of many different types adorning the garment.

"You throw them as Saya-chin and Tessie are leaving after they have their kiss," Mitsuha explained, winking at the couple, who turned tomato red. She took a few moments to adjust the yellow daffodils tucked in each of Yotsuha's ears.

"You're so cute, Yotsuha!" she gushed, taking a moment to admire her sister.

Yotsuha stepped back from her older sister's fussing, cheeks flushed from the compliment. "Stop," she mumbled.

"And Saya-chin," Mitsuha said, turning to address her friend. "You look beautiful in that dress!"

Sayaka smiled through the veil. "Thanks, Mitsuha!" Tessie coughed. "The compliments should go to me, since I rented that dress!" he moaned melodramatically.

"Me and Mitsuha rented that tux you're wearing!" Sayaka growled back, humor dancing in her eyes.

"What? No, I rented this tux! You wanted to get the other one!"

Mitsuha quietly ushered Yotsuha and herself outside the chapel, leaving the soon-to-be-wed couple to argue in peace. "Onee-chan, is that going to be you and Taki-sama?" Yotsuha asked innocently.

"We're not there yet. And don't call him that!"

"Yet?" the younger Miyamizu questioned with a raised eyebrow. The corners of her mouth lifted up, as if to say "Gotcha!" Mitsuha's mouth clamped shut as she realized her slip up. The Miyamizus walked in silence through the large room with tables and couches placed around, a fitting area for the reception party that would most definitely take place after the wedding.

"If you propose to him here, do you think Tessie-sama and Sayaka-sama would be mad?" Yotsuha wondered out loud. Mitsuha's already tense face reddened a bit, and she turned to her sister to fire off a retort before-

 _"_ Propose to who?"

Taki's kind voice sounded from behind them. Both Miyamizus spun around.

"Ah, Taki-sama! It's a pleasure to meet you," exclaimed Yotsuha, always the quick one to recover from a shock. "We were just talking about you! Onee-chan over here," she pointed almost accusatorily at Mitsuha. "said she was sad that you and her aren't married ye-"

"That's enough, Yotsuha!" Mitsuha's face was like a cherry now. "Sorry about her, Taki-kun," she added, gently pushing Yotsuha in the direction of their grandmother.

His eyes traced the younger Miyamizu's retreating figure. "So that's Yotsuha, huh?"

Mitsuha sighed, rolling her eyes. "The one and only. She insists on calling you Taki-sama."

"Hm...Taki-sama." Taki crossed his arms, deep in thought. "It has a nice ring to it."

"Don't flatter yourself, Taki," Mitsuha snapped playfully back. "I'll only call you 'Taki', 'Taki-kun', or 'Taki-chan'."

"Never Taki-sama?"

"Never."

"What about Taki-hime?"

She stared at him in disbelief. "That's the kind of thing Yotsuha asked me to call her when she was five."

"Well, it's never late to be a princess, right?"

Mitsuha gently laughed at the childlike innocence in the way he asked. "No, I suppose not, _Taki-hime._ " He chuckled with her, a smile on his face for his victory.

"Thanks again for inviting me. This is the first wedding I've been too, so I'm pretty excited." Taki said, having a look around the spacious waiting room. "I hope it's not a problem that I don't really know the groom and the bride," he added, turning to her.

"No, not at all. Actually, Sayaka and Tessie asked me to bring you here today," she admitted, trailing off towards the end.

"Eh? Really? Why?"

Her gaze dropped to the floor next to his feet as she crossed her arms in embarrassment. "I talked to them about you and they said they wanted to meet the man that," she paused for a moment, thinking of the exact wording. "'made sad Mitsuha into happy Mitsuha.'" she finished, muttering towards the end.

She braced herself for the laughter she knew was coming. When Mitsuha had recounted meeting Taki, she realized just how ridculous her story sounded. A random stranger off the street had called out to her, asking if they had met before. From that shaky introduction, he reversed the sadness that had plagued her for nearly a decade in a matter of hours. It was silly, as if something out of the fairy tales her mother told her as a child.

But the laughter never hit her. Instead, she peeked up at Taki, who instead of laughing, had a look of surprise on his face.

"What, you're not going to laugh?"

"No, of course not...Because..." Taki's confused voice trailed off as he scratched the back of his head, a strikingly familiar gesture she had come to recognize as his reaction to something embarassing or awkward. "Well, it's funny because...my friends wanted to meet you as well to see...the..." He paused. "'the woman that turned Taki straight.'" He quoted, a light blush forming ever so slightly on his face.

Mitsuha froze for a few seconds, fully absorbing what Taki had said. And then, she felt something rising up within her, mere seconds from exploding. And then it did.

"HAHAHAHAHHAAH!"

Taki was taken aback by the sudden burst of laughter from the normally calm woman. "Mitsuha, are you-"

Her laughter continued, interrupting his question. "I've been called a lot of things, but 'the woman that turned Taki straight'?" she sputtered before laughter exploded from her yet again.

She was soon joined by Taki, who couldn't help but laugh at the way she was laughing, and when her laughter finally abated, Taki was still laughing quite hard. Of course, she couldn't help but laugh at the way he was laughing at the way she had just been laughing. This continued for minutes, the sound of their mirth filling the halls.

Finally, their laughter finally subsided to content smiles. "Oh, my stomach hurts," Mitsuha sighed contently, clutching her abdomen. Taki was much the same, hunched over from the soreness in his midsection. "I'm gonna go sit down," she announced as she made her way to the nearest couch, collapsing into the seat. He dropped down right next to her.

"All that laughing made me tired," she said while trying to put her best accusatory tone on. "It's your fault." She poked him in the chest.

"My sincerest apologies, Princess. I'll do anything to make it up to you." Taki clapsed his hands together in apology.

"Hmmm...you're going to regret saying that, Taki-kun." She put on her most devious smile, relishing the nervous grin she got in response. "But for now..."

Mitsuha, with an uncharacteristic forwardness, leaned her head onto Taki's suit clad shoulder. They both tensed slightly but Mitsuha quickly relaxed onto him.

It had been three weeks since they began talking to each other using their first names and thus removing any need for formality. They made time in their busy schedules to go out on several "dates" (Mitsuha wasn't sure if Taki would appreciate calling them dates). They had dinner a few times, but they also watched a movie and just a few days ago, they had went to a RADWIMPS concert, a personal favorite band of Mitsuha.

With each "date", they grew closer and both of them grew bolder. Taki's flirting and compliments had become more and more frequent and she would be lying if she didn't enjoy the thrill in her chest whenever it happened. Still, determined not to let Taki one-up her, Mitsuha began to become more forward with her physical contact. She was sure to be subtle, lightly brushing hands as they walked side by side or gently pressing closer to him if they were sitting next to each other.

She took great pride in the results her light teasing had on Taki, especially considering she hadn't had any experience from past boyfriends. The first time, he had tensed up, shooting her an uncertain glance. Despite the fact that she was about as sure as Taki, she smiled innocently in response, tilting her head playfully as if to ask him ' _What's wrong?'_. As she kept at it, he became less and less tense and more and more responsive. Her hand lightly brushing onto his was met with his hand brushing hers.

She was pleased to know that they had both gotten used to the contact to the point where leaning her head on his shoulder wasn't overly awkward. ' _Because the fabric is soft and_ _this feels_ _good...'_

"Mitsuha, you didn't tell me you were dating already."

Mitsuha's eyes cracked open to find Sayaka and Tessie standing before her. Tessie had a grin on his face, already happy that his close friend had finally found a boyfriend. Sayaka was more skeptical, openly eying Taki with suspicion drawn across her face.

Mitsuha snapped to sitting up straight on the couch. "Saya-chin, Tessie!" She tried to stand up and saw stars as the blood rushed to her head a bit too quickly. She wobbled for a few moments before Taki gently gripped her shoulder, steadying her. "Thanks, Taki-kun," she whispered. Sayaka now looked at Taki with a hint of approval amidst the suspicion.

"Taki-kun, this is Natori Sayaka and Teshiwagara Katsuhiko." She introduced her close friends to Taki. "Tessie, Saya-chin, this is Tachibana Taki." She introduced Taki to her close friends, holding out her hand as if to display him as an award.

Sayaka offered her hand to Taki first. "It's nice to meet you, Tachibana-san."

Taki gave her a firm handshake. "It's a pleasure to meet you as well, Natori-san."

Tessie stepped up, less formal in the way he carried himself. "How's it going, Tachibana?" He offered his hand to Taki.

"It's alright, Teshiwagara-san," Taki replied, less formal to match Tessie. Another firm handshake.

"Any friend of Mitsuha is a friend of mine. Call me Tessie!" He gave Taki a stubble-faced grin.

"For that matter, please call me Sayaka as well," Sayaka cut in, staring straight at Taki. "Because I think you and I will be talking a great deal in the forseeable future."

Taki gulped, his normally cheery demeanor thrown off for a moment. Mitsuha sensed his discomfort and put a reassuring hand on his back.

"She means that she'll be asking you to design her future house, right?" Mitsuha bailed him out by changing the topic. "Taki-kun works at one of the largest architecture firms in Japan," she added.

She felt the tension in his back dissipate as the topic of conversation shifted to one Taki was more familiar with. "It's an honor to work there, especially since I'm fresh out of school." He quickly shot Mitsuha a look of ' _thank you'_. She smiled back at him. By changing the topic to one Taki could more easily talk about it and one that Sayaka was heavily interested in, she had killed two birds with one stone.

So began the conversation. ' _Maybe it's more of an interrogation,'_ Mitsuha thought as she watched the back and forth between her best friend and Taki. Occasionally either she or Tessie would cut in, but for the most part, Sayaka fired question after question off at Taki, not even attempting to be subtle.

"What elementary school did you go to?"

"Um...Shohei Elementary School in Tokyo."

"What junior high school did you go to?"

"Kaisei Junior High School."

"What high school did you go to?"

"Tokyo Toritsu Kokusai High School."

"What college did you go to?"

"University of Tokyo."

And so the questions went. Sayaka asked about his education, his interests, his passions (Taki was embarrassed to answer that question. Thankfully, Tessie saved him by turning the conversation elsewhere), his favorite color, position at his job, how much he was paid (Tessie saved him from this one too), how many girlfriends he had had (the answer was three, four including Okudera, but he respectfully declined to answer), about his friends, his friends' jobs, how many times he had been arrested (zero!).

"Hey, Sayaka, how about I get Taki a drink? He must be thirsty by now," Tessie suggested, somewhat abashed at his soon-to-be wife's relentless questioning.

"That sounds good!" Mitsuha played along eagerly. "Saya-chin, Oba-san said she wanted to talk to you. Let's go meet her!"

Before either Taki or Sayaka could argue (not that Taki would've argued anyway), Mitsuha ushered her friend one way while Tessie directed Taki the other way.

"Is Sayaka-san normally like that?" Taki asked as they walked towards the bar.

"Eh...not really." Tessie stroked the stubble on his cheeks. "She's just a little protective of her friends."

"Just a little?" Taki shuddered. "I can't imagine what 'really protective' would be, then."

"Cut her some slack, Taki," Tessie defended. "You're Mitsuha's first boyfriend, of course Sayaka's going to be – eh?"

Taki had frozen upon hearing "Mitsuha's first boyfriend."

"Hey, Taki? Taki? Tachibana-san?" Tessie was slightly concerned. "Oi, wake up! I don't want Mitsuha to kill me cause I knocked you out!"

"Did you say...Mitsuha's first boyfriend?" Taki asked, still not quite believing it.

"Yeah. Lots of guys asked her out in high school, but she said no to all of them. Even a girl asked her out!" Tessie said. "Mitsuha said no to the girl, in case you were wondering," he added, mistaking Taki's expression of shock for jealousy.

Taki was silent for a few moments as he absorbed this newfound information. ' _I don't believe it.'_

"You're saying someone like Mitsuha hasn't had any boyfriends, ever?" He finally asked as he began walking again.

"No boyfriends, no girlfriends." Tessie answered. "Just in case you were hung up about the whole girl thing."

"Oh..."

Taki made a mental note of this new information. ' _Because someone like Mitsuha shouldn't have had a problem getting a boyfriend.'_

Meanwhile, Mitsuha was walking anxiously with Sayaka, her arms folded tightly. She was dying to know if her best friend approved of Taki or not. ' _Even if I don't need her approval, I'd really like to have it.'_

They walked with no actual direction in mind. Mitsuha was anxious while Sayaka seemed to be deep in thought. Unable to stand the silence anymore, Mitsuha opened her mouth to say anything to distract her from her anxiety, only to be interrupted by Sayaka.

"Taki-san is...a good person." Sayaka admitted almost grudgingly. The anxiety in Mitsuha was pushed aside by hope.

"Really? So you approve?" Mitsuha held her breath, sorely wanting the answer to be yes. She knew that Sayaka had set high standards, higher than raven haired woman really thought necessary.

"Well...I don't like that he's already had at least one girlfriend. He might have expectations for you that you might not like." Sayaka said, not really answering the question.

The hope started to fade, anxiety returning. "So...no?" Mitsuha asked rather dejectedly.

Sayaka sighed in exasperation. "I was going to say more, but since you look like I kicked Taki's puppy..." Ignoring the remark about Taki's puppy ( _'He doesn't have one so you couldn't have kicked it!')_ , Mitsuha grabbed her friend's shoulder and gently pulled her so that they were facing each other.

"Please, just tell me already!"

Sayaka sighed again. "He might have expectations for you that you might not like," she repeated. "But if he's as kind as you said he is, and as kind as I think he is, then you'll work it out. He seems to be pretty stable everywhere else." She paused. "So, yes, I do- mmph!"

Her declaration of approval for Taki was ended abruptly by Mitsuha excitedly pulling her into a tight embrace of joy. "Thank you Saya-chin! Thank you thank you thank you thank you!" Releasing Sayaka, Mitsuha stood there, a radiant smile gracing her face. In a flash, she spun on her toe gracefully and began running off to Taki. "I've gotta tell him!"

"H-hey, Mitsuha, wait up!" Sayaka chased after her friend, moving with as much speed as one could move in an elaborate wedding dress.

Mitsuha stopped and turned around for just a few moments, bouncing on her feet with excitement. Letting Sayaka catch up, she turned around and started running off again, though this time not as fast.

With her best friend's approval firmly given, Mitsuha could think of no other barriers to exploring the mysterious but delightful relationship she had with Taki. The answers to the questions she couldn't answer would only make themselves visible as she and Taki figured them out, _together._

' _And if we're together, there's nothing that can stop us.'_

* * *

Author's Notes (someone told me these were too long. Please do feel free to skip if you're not interested.):

It's been almost a month. I am so sorry.

If it means anything, soccer season has started, and practices have not left me with much energy to write quality content. In fact, I'm not very satisfied with this chapter. It does little to move the plot forward, which is definitely something I need to keep track of. I've seen fanfictions that are incredibly well written but lost their direction, leading to a murky resolution. This is something I'd like to avoid as much as possible.

At the very least, I hope you did enjoy reading my take on how Taki and Mitsuha would act together. Scenes with both Taki and Mitsuha are far and few between in _Your Name,_ and they've never had a scene where they're just casually talking. So this is a step into the unknown, one that I hope I made in the right direction. Not into a pile of mud.

Please do take a moment to consider leaving a review. I love to hear from you guys about what you enjoy and what I can do to improve!

Response to reviewers:

Lancedark: Oh, no, I have no intention of ending this fanfic anytime soon. I've estimated that I'm only about 10% done so far. There's much more to come, don't worry ;) I'm glad that you think my fanfic is a perfect continuation, although I think that achievement could be left only to Shinkai.

Eijun-chan: Glad that you're enjoying it! I'll do my best to make sure the chapters are of the best quality I can make them!

Lunaris-wind: I'll do my best to keep the story as enjoyable as possible!

Spike-2416: You guessed it! Glad you're enjoying it so far!


	5. V: Tokyo Boyfriend

_Yotsuha clapsed her hands together, in deep thought. "Were you Mitsuha's Tokyo boyfriend from eight years ago, then?" she finally asked._

* * *

 _Chapter V: Tokyo Boyfriend_

* * *

"Ah, I want to have that kind of wedding when it's my day!"

"The bride and groom looked completely relaxed. That certainly wasn't how we looked on our wedding day, right dear?"

"The kiss at the end wasn't sloppy either!"

Mitsuha sat at one of the many tables topped with snow-white linens, listening to the remarks of the guests of the wedding all around her.

"By the looks of it, everything went well," Taki said to her. He sat casually with his hands laced together, resting on the back of his neck. It contrasted heavily with how stiff and formal he had been when he arrived.

Mitsuha was inclined to agree. The wedding really had gone without a hitch, mostly thanks to previous rehearsals of the ceremony. The only unrehearsed part portion of it was the kiss. ' _And I think Saya-chin and Tessie have had plenty of practice with that part.'_ The newlywed couple had looked completely natural and in harmony, entangled in the embrace of the other, their lips pressing softly together to complete the union of husband and wife.

A red-faced Yotsuha plopped down into the seat next to her.

"I got chewed out for five minutes, but he forgave me in the end," the younger Miyamizu mumbled to no one in particular. Mitsuha and Taki shared a humorous glance.

 _'T_ _here's one part of the wedding that didn't go so well.'_

The whole chapel had almost exploded into an uproar as the couple sealed their love with their first kiss as newlyweds. As they floated down the aisle, hands intertwined, Yotsuha followed them from a distance while dilligently doing her flower girl duties. She lightly tossed a handful into the air, watching as the petals turned and flipped on their way down. Some dropped quite quickly, coming back down just as soon as they had gone up, while others were a bit more floaty, falling at a speed of about five centimeters per second.

So distracted was she with the falling petals that she wasn't really looking where she threw the next handful and-

"I JUST SWALLOWED A PETAL!"

"Cheer up, Yotsuha." Mitsuha ruffled her sister's hair.

"..."

Mitsuha laughed lightly. ' _You've changed so much, but you're still the same,'_ she thought as she ran her hand through the glossy black hair all the Miyamizus shared.

"Yotsuha, I want you to meet Taki. Properly this time."

Yotsuha's mood took a full U-turn at the mention of Taki. "Ah, Taki-sama!" She flashed him a wide grin. "It's nice to meet you!" she said while taking his hand and shaking it excitedly.

Taki chuckled nervously, scratching the back of his neck. "It's nice to meet you too, Yotsuha-san."

"Sama!" she insisted. "It's only fair, since I call you Taki-sama."

"Yotsuha-sama..." Taki tried once, as if trying a new food and seeing if it left a good taste. Then he returned her wide grin with one of his own. "I guess I don't have a choice then. Right, Yotsuha-sama?"

"Exactly!"

Seeing Taki and Yotsuha banter back and forth so easily made Mitsuha smile. ' _It doesn't look like Yotsuha will have too many problems with Taki-kun.'_

Taki was also relieved. ' _If there's someone I do want to make an impression on, it's definitely Yotsuha.'_ At the same time, though, he felt slightly confused about the familiar nature of the wide grin directed to him or the playful and excited way she carried herself. Despite the fact that they were sisters and their many similarities, Mitsuha and Yotsuha had very clear differences. Where Mitsuha was more reserved, Yotsuha was more outgoing. Where Yotsuha lacked in patience, Mitsuha had plenty of it.

' _So the familiarity doesn't come from there...Why do I feel like I already know Yotsuha, then?'_

Not one to like silence much, Yotsuha spoke up again. "Taki-sama, you're from Tokyo, right?"

He nodded. "I've lived there my whole life."

Yotsuha clapsed her hands together, in deep thought. "Were you Mitsuha's Tokyo boyfriend from eight years ago, then?" she finally asked.

Mitsuha froze in the middle of checking her phone. "Tokyo boyfriend?" she questioned, putting it down.

"Yeah, Tokyo boyfriend." Yotsuha took on a look of deep concentration. "Remember when you said you were going on a date in Tokyo?"

Mitsuha rested her chin into her palm, thinking hard about the question posed to her. There was a small nagging feeling inside of her that told her that Yotsuha was right, eight years ago, she did go to Tokyo for whatever reason. ' _I'm sure it wasn't because I had a boyfriend, because I'd definitely remember that...But what did I go to Tokyo for?'_

Taki's laugh added to the unsettling feeling within her. They had only met a couple of weeks ago, yet she could already detect the subtle differences in this laugh from his normal, casual laugh. This laugh wasn't that, there were undertones of doubt in it.

"Eight years ago? I would've been in my last year of junior high school then," Taki laughed as he did the math in his head. "There was no way we could've met."

' _There's no way we could've met...'_

The words reverberated within her, allowing Mitsuha to let them fully sink in.

' _There's no way we could've met...'_

 _'No way we could've met...'_

 _'We could've met...'_

As she thought hard about the significance of those words and why they resonated so heavily with her, she was suddenly hit with a stream of memories. They were all dark and murky, exactly like what had happened in the Italian restaurant on her first "date" with Taki. Again, her vision was blocked, but her hearing wasn't.

' _I'm going to Tokyo!'_

 _'Eh?_ _Now?!_ _Why?_ _'_

Mitsuha tried her best to look around as she heard her sister's surprised voice responding to the voice of her younger self.

 _'Um..well..for a date!'_

' _Eh?_ _Onee-chan, you have a boyfriend in Tokyo?'_

'Well _...not my date...'_

Her younger self's voice trailed off in uncertainty, as if knowing how ridiculous she sounded.

' _I'll be home by tonight!'_

With those words, the scene began to brighten, forcing the darkness to recede little by little. Finally, she could see. She saw that her younger self, adorned in the standard Itomori high school outfit of a grey skirt and a white blouse with a bow, and Yotsuha were on the flight of stairs next to the water pump, right before the split in the road where Yotsuha went right, to the elementary school and she went left, to the high school.

Her younger self waved in goodbye as Yotsuha ran excitedly to one of her friends. Seeing Yotsuha disappear inside the bright building that was the elementary school, she began walking again, but not in the direction of the high school. Rather, she turned back to go to the tain station.

After waiting patiently for some time (' _The trains don't come by often, after all')_ , Mitsuha from the past finally boarded a Tokyo-bound train. She took a seat next to a window, resting her head against the glass as a few other residents of Itomori filed in, perhaps wanting to escape Itomori for a little while, like she did.

The train took off and the scenery outside changed, from the mountainous Itomori to more flat lands.

Mitsuha from the past took out her phone and tapped a few times, staring at the screen with great uncertainty. Although the memory was brighter, it was not sharp and focused. Mitsuha strained her eyes to see what her seventeen year old self was looking at.

There, she saw a contact.

' _Taki'._

Mitsuha from the past hovered over two options: one to call, one to text. For a few minutes, she stared intently, clearly thinking hard about this decision. Her finger got very close to pressing the option to call before she hesitated. Eventually, her finger did press something, but it was the power button.

' _I might annoy him if I just call suddenly,'_ she murmured to herself, putting her phone back into her purse.

' _Kami-sama, please let me find him...'_

And then the memory faded to nothing, as if a dream...

* * *

 _"_ You and Taki even space out together!"

Mitsuha returned to the present as Yotsuha's complaints reached her ears. She glanced around, recollecting where she was. More importantly, she was storing the details of the memory she had just seen firmly into her head.

Yotsuha was staring at her with mild annoyance and curiosity. She looked back and forth between Mitsuha and Taki, who seemed similarly disoriented. He glanced around a few times before he met gazes with Mitsuha.

In his deep, blue eyes, Mitsuha saw her confusion reflected. From there, it was clear that Taki had seen a vision or _whatever_ it was that she had just seen.

She opened her mouth to speak, but he got there first.

"Talk about it later," he said to her.

She closed her mouth and nodded in affirmation. Sayaka and Tessie would join them soon, and it wouldn't be a good place to talk about what she had experienced.

"Talk about it later," repeated Mitsuha.

* * *

A/N:

I just love Yotsuha. She's so great.

The reference to _5 Centimeters Per Second_ is just a reference. There's no hidden meaning to it.

I realize that I ended this a bit abruptly, but I really do need to get updates out. Really sorry if this disappoints anyone, but if I don't update for too long, I eventually lose many readers.

I'm planning on writing shorter chapters, so do expect more updates!

Please do take a moment to consider leaving a review. I love to hear from you guys about what you enjoy and what I can do to improve!

Response to reviewers:

Kisa124: I'll do my best! :)

Vandal Shot: I'm really sorry for the wait! I did not expect life to get in the way so much.

Snow universe: _Your Name_ is definitely my favorite anime movie, although I don't really watch much anime so...If you've got any suggestions, I'd be glad to hear them! I'll do my best to keep updating as steadily as possible!

Dememeiys: Glad to hear you're enjoying the fic!

Emilyswift: While I'm definitely doing my best to make sure the plot is clear and strong, I'm also well aware that many readers are probably here for the Taki and Mitsuha action, so I do hope chapters that focus on the interaction between the two is delivering successfully. Thank you for your support!

Eijun-chan: Haha, well I plan on delivering the other 90% as best as I can!

Prietar: There's a scene in the movie where a girl confesses to Taki about 20 or so minutes in. That's the girl I referenced in the fic.

Guest: Thank you for reading :)


	6. VI: Coincidence?

_They sat there for a while. "What do you think?" Mitsuha finally asked. There were just too many coincidences for her to think of them as coincidences anymore. Their different behaviors, the ink on their hands, the vision she'd seen at Sayaka's wedding. No, there had to be some sort of connection, a missing link._

 _"I don't think this is just a coincidence," Taki seemed to have read her mind. "We're definitely missing something but," his hand tightened into a fist. "I can't think of anything."_

 _It was a frustration she shared, the tantalizing feeling of knowing him but not really. Because she had to have known him from before; all the "coincidences" pointed to that. But how Mitsuha knew Taki remained a mystery._

* * *

 _Chapter VI: Coincidence?_

* * *

"Thank you for coming!"

Sayaka and Tessie bowed as the last of the guests offered their congratulations and said their well wishes, and walked out of the church into the bright light of late afternoon Tokyo. The moment the sliding doors snapped together to close, the stiffness in their postures eased.

"I thought I'd be dead before that old geezer left!" Tessie drawled as he crashed onto the nearest sofa.

"I'm so tired I could be dead!" Sayaka flopped down beside to him. Tessie turned to her with a grin on his face.

"Do you know what that means?" he inquired, playfulness in abundance.

"What?" she responded, the grin catching on like a disease.

"We can be dead..TOGETHER!" Tessie tackled Sayaka and started to tickle her relentlessly. Giggles rolled off of both of them as they squirmed around on the sofa. The nearby chapel staff cleaning up shook their heads in amusement, clearly used to seeing their patrons engage in such behavior once the guests were gone.

"Guys, save it for later!" Mitsuha interrupted, not wanting to witness the wedded couple's consummation. Snickering, Sayaka and Tessie disentangled and opted to sit next to each other.

"It's actually a lot of fun, Mitsuha." Sayaka wrapped her arm around Tessie's waist. "You should try it some time!"

"I agree!" Yotsuha appeared out of nowhere. Mitsuha was about to ask why she was there but Yotsuha kept talking. "I'm sure Taki-sama would love that, right?" She winked with a sly smile. Mitsuha flushed. Unable to think of a suitable comeback, she went along her original line of questioning. "Yotsuha, what were you doing-"

"Oh, I know!" she squealed in excitement, clapping her hands together. "Let's ask Taki-sama if he wants to make out with you!"

"Huh?" The person in question was stacking chairs almost out of habit from his former part-time job. He pushed his last stack to the wall, as directed by the chapel staff and walked over. "Did someone say my name?"

The other three turned to Mitsuha expectantly. "W-what? Why are you looking at me like that?"

Yotsuha sighed with exasperation. "She's hopeless...Taki-sama! Mitsuha here wants to make out with you but she can't-" She was cut off abruptly by a death glare from her dear sister. "Never mind."

Taki also looked like he wanted to say something, but wisely refrained. "It seems that the cleanup is just about over," he changed the topic, his heart beating a little faster from the smile of gratitude Mitsuha directed at him. "Tessie, Sayaka, thank you for having me and congratulations on the wedding!"

Tessie lazily waved a hand in response. "Any friend of Mitsuha's is our friend. Just invite us to your and Mitsuha's wedding, okay?" He shot Taki a sly grin, which quickly fell off his face when another death glare was directed at him.

Taki scratched his head and chuckled.

* * *

Mitsuha violently stabbed her cream-filled chocolate bundt cake, having a slight satisfaction in the feeling of the metal prongs smoothly slicing through the cream in the center.

"AGHHH!"

The small satisfaction did little to quell the frustration heating up within her. "I love all of them to death but," she stuffed a bit of cake in her mouth and chewed rapidly. "they really get on my nerves sometimes!"

Taki calmly sliced a bit of his much less expensive cheese danish. "Tell me about it. Back when I used to date my coworker, my friends at work never left me alone about it." His voice took on a tone of annoyance and nostalgia, but mostly nostalgia. "The worst thing they did was force the two of us under mistletoe."

Mitsuha stopped stuffing her face for a moment. "Well, what happened?" she asked.

He blinked, not quite following. "We were all cleaning up and they cut the lights so that I had to go to the front door-"

"Not quite what I meant, Taki. What happened when you got under the mistletoe?" she asked again, intently watching for his reaction.

Taki's eyes went wide with realization. "Oh! Nothing happened! We sorta just laughed it off and went back to work."

Mitsuha sighed, going back to digging into her cake. Under her beath (and a forkful of cake), she mumbled, "Well, that's a relief."

Taki heard her but decided against asking anything while she was still in posession of a fork. He thought to what Tessie said earlier... _'_ _Lots of guys asked her out in high school, but she said no to all of them._ _'_

"Hey, Mitsuha?"

She paused her eating, fork still in mouth, and looked up at Taki. The sight was rather cute, he had to admit.

"Did you have any boyfriends?"

She shook her head and swallowed. "I had to perform really weird rituals as a shrine maiden," she said, setting her fork down. "so I wasn't exactly popular. Being the mayor's daughter didn't help either."

"But Tessie said earlier that lots of guys asked you out in high school," he questioned, somewhat confused. _'This doesn't line up at all with what Tessie_ _told me_ _.'_

"Well..." her voice trailed off as she thought about it. "That did happen, but I don't know why. All of a sudden I became one of the popular girls but I don't think like it was because I acted any different. Although..." she rested her arms on the table and leaned forward, deep in thought. "that was around the time when Saya-chin and Tessie said I was a completely different person some days..."

She was mostly talking to herself at this point, but Taki couldn't help but note her words at the end. ' _A completely different person, huh...'_ His best friends, Tsukasa and Takagi, had said similar things about Taki. They found it so profound that they were still bringing it up in conversations half a decade later.

"Remember when Taki got lost on the way from his house to school that one day?"

This was a few days ago, when the three new graduates had found the time to get together. Takagi nodded and Taki groaned.

"We were third years in high school then, Tsukasa," he exasperatedly groaned. "You're still remembering that?"

"Wasn't that the day he forgot his bento?"

Taki turned on Takagi. "You, too?"

"Yeah, and it was also the day he got super excited over a cafe."

"That's when he forgot he had work and even forgot where he worked, too..."

Tsukasa and Takagi went on and on, describing the numerous oddities that Taki had displayed, leaving him to sit in his chair rather frustratedly. In the end, they summed up what they had discussed with a simple sentence: "It's like Taki forgot who he was and a completely different person came to visit."

"Taki?"

His attention shifted from his memories to Mitsuha, who looked slightly concerned.

"Oh, sorry." he started, scratching the back of his head. "Something you said got me thinking. That's all."

"What was it?" she asked, leaning forward.

"When you said 'completely different person'...That's the exact words my friends used to describe me years ago."

She watched him intently, feeling that they were on the verge of discovering something important. "Different how?" she asked. Taki's eyes met hers and he was momentarily distracted by the intensity glowing in her golden orbs.

"I forgot things like where my school was, where my classes were, who some of my friends were."

Mitsuha's eyes widened. "That's exactly what happened to me!" She reached out and grasped his hand tightly with hers. "What else do you remember? There has to be something!"

Taki stared at their connected hands, appreciating the feeling of her warm, smooth skin against his. But that brought another thing to mind...

"Remember how I told you about when I woke up on a mountain in Itomori?" he asked slowly, piecing together his rather foggy memories as he went. She nodded, wondering where this was going.

"I woke up with a horizontal line drawn onto my right hand." He cringed slightly, wondering if it sounded as stupid as he thought it did. But although the ink of the marker slowly faded away over time, the loneliness, despair, the _emptiness_ that he felt that day, when he woke up on the mountain...that didn't. Not until he met her. It was something he couldn't ignore.

Not expecting a reaction, Taki pulled his gaze from their still interlocked hands to her eyes and found them wide with confusion.

"Mitsuha?"

Her gaze met his and he could tell they were on the verge of something important, something that would take them closer to realizing the truth.

"My friends tell me that on the day when Tiamat fell," she said slowly. "I ran off to somewhere in the afternoon, and didn't come back till evening. When I came back, I had something drawn on my hand." She paused, leaning forward a little. "It said, 'I love you.'" her voice faded to a whisper as she reached those last three words. At the end, they both realized that there were but a few inches between their faces. With light blushes, they returned to their original positions.

They sat there for a while. "What do you think?" Mitsuha finally asked. There were just too many coincidences for her to think of them as coincidences anymore. Their different behaviors, the ink on their hands, the vision she'd seen at Sayaka's wedding. No, there had to be some sort of connection, a missing link.

"I don't think this is just a coincidence," Taki seemed to have read her mind. "We're definitely missing something but," his hand tightened into a fist. "I can't think of anything."

It was a frustration she shared, the tantalizing feeling of knowing him but not really. Because she had to have known him from before; all the "coincidences" pointed to that. But how Mitsuha knew Taki remained a mystery.

"Well, no point in stressing over it right now," his voice was somewhat calmer. He began eating his neglected cheese danish again.

"Yeah," she said slowly, going back to her bundt cake as well. They finished off their deserts in relative silence, stewing over what they had learned.

All of her thoughts converged at a single point: " _There's some sort of link that we're missing."_ Feeling that she was taking no steps close to the truth no matter how hard she thought about it, Mitsuha decided to call it a day.

"Taki." She placed a hand on his. That got his attention. Ignoring the pleasant warmth of his hand on hers, she said, "I'm sure that everything will be come more clear. And, even if it doesn't," she swallowed, and met his eyes with a sincere gaze, "I'm so glad to have met you."

"Me too. Even if we never get to the bottom of this, I've really enjoyed the time we've spent together." The admission brought heat to their faces. "And I hope we can keep doing that."

She smiled. "Yeah." It was all she needed to say.

* * *

A/N: All I can say is sorry...

I received a fairly severe concussion not too long after the last chapter was uploaded. It was horrible. A full week in the hospital, a full two weeks of not remembering my passwords for the sites that I don't use my generic password for (ex fanfiction dot net).

Then throw in a month of playing Persona 5. God that game is so good.

But anyway, I'm hoping to make regular updates now that things are back to normal. I know I've let you down and I'm very sorry.

On a side note, can you tell where I picked up writing after all of that happened? I sure can!

Response to reviews:

tennisdesi91: I am honestly so sorry. I hope I can make it up to you with more consistent updates!

Western-Otaku: Yes, that was the goal here. I loved Yotsuha in the movie and I'm even considering writing a sequel of a sorts about Yotsuha having similar dreams once I'm done with this. But that's far into the future, I think.

Sinthetic: Thanks for the feedback! Yes, _Kimi No Na Wa_ was amazing and the open-ended ending is what drove me to write this fanfic, just as it drove you to come here and read.

Silo: For me, I actually appreciated the open ending. It made sense, Taki and Mitsuha beat fate to be together and now it's up to them to live it to their fullest. Regardless, I'm glad to hear that you're enjoying what I'm writing! Please be on the look out for more!

MirrorFlower and DarkWind: The fanfics that return Taki and Mitsuha's memories right after they meet never did it for me. I feel like there has to be a slow progression to them getting their memories back, one that is much more complicated than just running into each other.

Rehan yeheh: Sorry! I'll do my best to start updating again!

Akane Minori: Thank you from the bottom of my heart. This review is what made me sit down and grind out the last half of this chapter. I will do my best to keep the updates consistent.


	7. VII: Festival

_Chapter VII: Itomori Festival_

* * *

 _The fact that Taki was already thinking about them and their relationship a year in advance weighed heavily on Mitsuha's mind. It hinted towards commitment. In other words, it hinted that he was her boyfriend._

 _Unfortunately, hints weren't enough. She had to be absolutely certain about it. 'Why?' she wondered. After some thinking, she came to a conclusion. 'I want Taki to be mine and I want to be his. Nothing more, nothing less.'_

 _The brand of certainty she sought wasn't cheap and she could only obtain it from Taki himself. All she had to do was ask him._

* * *

 _October 3th, 2022_

 _Monday_

* * *

The intense light of early afternoon fell on Mitsuha's sleeping face after hours of slowly creeping up from the foot of her bed. The sudden heat roused her from her lazy slumber. She shifted over to escape, but after a quarter hour of tossing and turning to find the most comfortable position, she gave up on going back to sleep. She sat up and stretched her lithe body, twisting it this way and that.

Mitsuha grasped blindly under the bed for her phone, searching for where she'd dropped it a couple of hours earlier when she'd drifted off to a pleasant nap. Her fingers made contact and she brought it up, immediately checking for any messages. To her disappointment, there were only two.

The first one came from her grandmother informing her that she'd be returning to Tokyo soon. She'd been gone for a couple of months to revisit Itomori and the surrounding towns, an occasional trip she took every so often. It was a little bit of an inconvenience for Mitsuha and Yotsuha but since they knew the depths of their grandmother's love for Itomori, they did their best to manage.

The second text was from Taki, declining her earlier request to go out on a date because of work. She wasn't surprised; it was a Monday after all. The only reason she was still in her pink and polka dot pajamas and taking naps _on a Monday afternoon_ was because she'd recently run into a massive success at her job.

Even if she wasn't surprised, Mitsuha was still concerned about how willingly Taki threw himself into his work. She absolutely admired his diligence and persistence, but it was a constant source of worry. Most of it was out of genuine care for his general wellbeing, but a very small yet undeniably selfish part of it came from wanting to be with him more than she was now.

After Tessie and Sayaka's wedding a few weeks back, they'd taken a step closer to solving the mystery of their connection. But she wouldn't mind if they never did solve the mystery even if she very much did want to know the truth. What was more important to Mitsuha was that they'd taken a step closer in the romantic sense that day, too. They were much more than friends now; the lingering gazes, increasing physical contact, and the butterflies of attraction attested to that even if they weren't able to come out and say it.

' _Maybe tomorrow,'_ she consoled herself. ' _In the meantime, I need to find something to do!'_

Normally Sayaka and/or Tessie were up to hang out any time, but they were still very much in their honeymoon phase. Last week, she'd made the mistake of calling late in the evening to discuss possible plans for the next day only to be told by a very breathless and flustered Sayaka to call back later. She decided not to call back later, and she didn't call much at all anymore.

She was seriously considering calling up some very _very_ old friends from Itomori when the door to her apartment opened. Yotsuha walked in quickly, tripping as she rushed in. She was frustrated about something, that much was obvious. Yotsuha had never changed in that regard; how she was feeling was always clear.

"I'm back..." Yotsuha called, her voice unenthusiastically trailing off. She dropped her bag onto the floor next to her room and slumped into the chair next to Mitsuha. Her forehead hit the table with a light thunk.

"You look like you've had a rough day," Mitsuha stroked her distraught sister's hair in the way she knew she liked it.

"The school's holding some sort of event for Itomori tomorrow." Yotsuha's muffled voice answered her. "And everyone's asking me questions about Itomori and it's really annoying!"

"Oh, I forgot!" Mitsuha exclaimed. It was October 3rd. A day short of nine years ago, Tiamat had fallen and destroyed Itomori. "The school did say there was a festival."

"They've kinda made a recreation of Itomori's autumn festival," Yotsuha mumbled. "So everyone's asking me about how it looked and everything."

Mitsuha hummed in response, knowing all too well what her younger sister meant. None of the former residents of Itomori escaped the questions, but she didn't think it'd be a stretch to say that she and Yotsuha had it the worst out of all of them. To this day, almost a decade later, they received the occasional question about how her father had known to call an emergency drill right before the meteor hit.

They stayed silent for a little longer before Yotsuha sat up abruptly with a cheeky grin on her face. Her famous ability to change from tired and mopey to happy and mischiveous in a matter of a few seconds was on display. "Onee-chan, you know what you should do?"

She tilted her head questioningly in response. "No, what?"

"You should..." Yotsuha paused, probably for some sort of dramatic effect. "bring Taki-sama!"

Mitsuha considered the idea. It was true that he was interested in Itomori, or at least he had been. He'd travelled from Tokyo just to see its ruins, after all. "That's a good idea!" she announced, startling Yotsuha.

"Wait, really? I was only joking..."

"No, I think he'd be interested," Mitsuha said, already picking up her phone.

" _Sorry to bother you again,_ _but Yotsuha's high school is holding a festival for Itomori. I was wondering if you wanted to go with me?"_

It didn't take long for him to reply. " _That sounds great! What time are you thinking on going?"_ Mitsuha looked over to Yotsuha, who was watching the conversation. "It's open until 8:30 in the evening for parents to come and see."

" _When are you free?"_ She typed out, praying that his work would end early enough.

" _I'm off work at_ _around 5:30,_ _but I'll need to eat dinner. So around 6:15, I guess."_

Mitsuha saw an opportunity and went for it. " _How about we go somewhere for dinner_ _before we go to the festival_ _? ;)"_

" _Sounds good!_ _There's a_ _sandwich shop_ _right next to_ _where I work,_ _meet there at 5:45?_ _"_ The text was followed by an address.

 _"Meet you there!"_ She put her phone down, sighing happily.

"So...Are you going to marry him?" Yotsuha asked, smirking almost evilly.

 _"She asked this at Saya-chin and Tessie's wedding and I was so quick to deny it. But now, I think..."_

"I don't know." Mitsuha responded seriously. "But I...kinda want to. I feel like he's the one."

"EH?! But you've only known him for half a year!" The tone of surprise was a rare occurence with Yotsuha as she was a roll-with-the-punches type of girl.

Mitsuha glared at her sister. "You've been wanting us to get married since Saya-chin's wedding!" But both her voice and her face relaxed as she unfolded her right hand and stared at her palm. "It's just one of those feelings, you know?" Her words were hesitant and softly spoken.

"No, I don't." Yotsuha responded, quite seriously for her. Mitsuha's gaze was still trained on her palm, but if she would look away from her hand, she'd see that her younger sister was staring at her with a large amount of concern in her eyes. She opened her mouth to say more but was interrupted by Mitsuha.

"Maybe you might later. It took me a while to feel it. But enough of that! We need to spend some time together!"

Yotsuha closed her mouth. The words remained unspoken, but the concern behind them grew.

* * *

Bells tinkled as Taki rushed through the door. "Sorry!" he gasped his apology to the owner of the sandwich store, a young, pretty woman who was behind the counter. She waved him off. "Don't worry about it! You're always welcome here, Taki-san!"

He quickly made his way to a booth in the far corner, where Mitsuha was seated. She'd been watching the scene and he could tell she was slightly bemused. "You're quite the popular one here, aren't you, _Ta_ _ki_ _-_ _s_ _an_?"

"I'm a regular here, mostly because I'm too lazy to make food for myself," he responded, unwrapping one of the sandwiches in front of him. He'd texted her earlier, telling her what to order for him. "And we've been friends since middle school. She gives me free stuff sometimes."

Some of Mitsuha's amusement faded. Of course she'd expected that Taki would have other female friends, that wasn't a surprise. It was just sobering to compare her paltry six months of knowing him to the staggering number of years the sandwich store owner had known him.

All of this was lost on Taki, who was currently digging through his meal. "Oh, and sorry for being late," he mumbled. "The boss stopped me on my way out."

"Why? It wasn't because you were leaving early for our date, right?" She knew how much this job meant to him and didn't want to mess anything up.

"No, nothing like that," Taki reassured her quickly, putting down the sandwich wrapper. He'd finished in 15 seconds, flat. "He was complimenting me on my work, actually."

"That's a relief. I'd hate to ruin your career for you," she exhaled, no longer worried. "You're not even late, anyways! You're, what," she checked the time on her phone. "five minutes late? That's within the boundaries of being fashionably late!"

He laughed. "I guess I should take your word for it. You're the expert on fashion, after all."

She smiled. "I also happen to be an expert at being late, too."

"I know, you were at least 20 minutes late to our first date."

"Hey! It wasn't that bad!"

"You're right, you were probably later than that."

They burst out laughing. _'This is the feeling,'_ Mitsuha thought happily. _'No one else_ _can_ _make me laugh or smile like this.'_

Taki and Mitsuha got up and threw their trash into a nearby bin, and walked out to leave. "Thank you very much!" they called as they exited the building. Unbeknownst to them, the owner was watching Taki leave with a wistful eye.

The other eye was watching Mitsuha with envy.

* * *

"Wow."

The couple stood at the gates of Jingu High School, Yotsuha's current and Taki's past high school.

Mitsuha turned to Taki. "What's up?"

"Oh, nothing much," he replied, scratching his head. "Just being here brings back memories, that's all."

"I think that'll make two of us," she murmured, spotting a group female students entering the school donned in yukatas of various colors. An autumn festival tradition was for the women to wear yukatas. The high school had recreated that much faithfully.

"Shall we go in?"

She nodded in response.

The main entrance was just the same as always, with awards the school had won stacking shelves in display cabinets off to the side. An older man, presumably a teacher, directed them towards the third year wing.

When they reached the festival, Mitsuha's jaw unhinged. She came to an abrupt halt at the entrance. Her golden eyes, wide as saucers, feasted on everything they could see. She would say without hestitation that Jingu High School had faithfully recreated the autumn festival she had known and loved from her childhood.

Paper lamps glowed with a mellow tone of gold, providing light for the tents – and the tents! There were two rows of them, facing each other from opposite sides of the hallway. They came in a variety of colors – blue, pink, orange – and each of them offered something to do. She watched as several children ran from a cotton candy tent, taking newly bought cotton candy and smiles with them. Opposite from the cotton candy tent was the goldfish scooping tent, where a man intently scooped goldfish out of a tank. Seeing all of this conjured memories, _happy memories_ that she hadn't been able to experience again since moving to Tokyo.

"Wow," she finally breathed. "They really did a good job."

 _"_ Yeah, this is incredible..." Taki said, also impressed.

Excitement began to bubble in her stomach as she continued to survey the festival. There were _takoyaki_ stands, lotteries, candy shops...eveyrthing she could have asked for!

"It's almost exactly like it was in Itomori! The paper lamps, the tents," Mitsuha paused, looking for something else in the setting that touched her memories so powerfully. "The lighting!" she exclaimed.

"...You mean the lamps?" Taki's expression grew confused.

"No, look!" She pointed towards the windows. The paper lamps were dim and placed sparsely enough so that the full moon's soft rays were visible. "It was a full moon on the night of the festival, too!"

"Wow, that's clever..."

Her normal shy nature offset by the excitement coursing through her, Mitsuha grabbed Taki's hand. The act surprised herself as much as it surprised him, as he was usually the one to take initiative, but it was a pleasant surprise for both of them. "Let's check it out, Taki!"

He smiled. "Yeah."

They entered the festival together, hands still joined.

 _'I could get used to this,'_ Mitsuha thought.

* * *

The rest of the night flashed by.

"We're going to go through every tent, okay? No exceptions!"

"Every tent? Even the food ones?" Taki questioned.

She thought about it for a while. "Okay, not all the food ones. But everything else, definitely!"

"Sounds good!"

* * *

"How are you so good at this?" Taki growled lightly as he missed the fourth beanbag toss in a row.

Mitsuha tossed her fifth. The beanbag sailed cleanly through the hole, just like it had four times prior. "I grew up with these festivals, Taki. It'll take a lot for a city boy like you to beat me in these country games," she teased.

"Just you wait," he murmured. Taki stared down the hole with the kind of intensity a sniper might stare down their target. He took into account the weight of the beanbag and the angle at which he should throw before he brought his arm back, and released!...

...And missed the board completely.

* * *

"Thish ish really good," Taki mumbled while trying to chew his way through a steak skewer. "You grew up with these around?"

Mitsuha giggled. "I wish! The steak skewers were in another town and only came by each autumn festival."

"I'm gonna find that town and not a day will go by when I don't have a steak skewer..." Taki mumbled.

* * *

"A minute to scoop up as many fish as possible? That doesn't sound hard..." Taki looked at the goldfish dubiously. They weren't particularly fast and the tank they were in wasn't deep.

"Shouldn't be a problem for you then, boss!" the student running the goldfish scooping tent cheekily taunted. "100 yen per go!"

He looked at the student and Mitsuha. Both of them were hiding something, he could tell, but he had no idea what. "What's the catch?" he asked.

"No catch, boss! Just scoop up those fish!"

"It's nothing, Taki. Really." Her tone was awfully neutral for the smirk on her face.

Taki shrugged it off. "Sure, why not? Here goes nothing." He rolled up his sleeves and picked up a paper net, and submerged it into the water. Two goldfish swam into the net and he quickly pulled the net back up and placed the fish in another tank.

He repeated this process one more time. When he went to pull the fish out on the third trip, however, his net surfaced with no fish in it. "What the..." The net had broken, rendering him unable to get any more fish.

"Four fish, boss!" the student said, happily collecting Taki's money. "Not the lowest number! I think that was three. Maybe the missus wants a try?"

She grinned. "I do, actually." Mitsuha rolled up her sleeves and picked up a paper net, and submerged it into the water. She waited patiently until three fish swam in before she slowly retracted the net and placed it into the other tank. The whole process was very slow and deliberate. There were no sudden movements, which Taki realized was the trick behind the game. Mitsuha was taking it carefully as to not damage the net as he had done.

Time ran out just as she finished her sixth scoop. The slack-jawed student counted the number of fish. "Our record is nine," he stammered. "But you've got eighteen!"

Mitsuha winked at Taki before turning back to the student. "What's my prize?"

The student jumped, frantically turning around to read a board on the back. "Well...I guess I'll just give you the prize for twelve." He picked up a Magikarp plush doll and handed it to Mitsuha. "It's a hat, you should try it on!"

She was pleasantly surprised to find that the mouth opened and pulled the Magikarp over her head. She turned to Taki. "Well, how does it look?"

"It's cute," Taki laughed. "Hold on, let me get a picture of this." She held up two peace signs and smiled. When he was done, she took a look and nodded approvingly. "Send that to me!"

An idea popped into Mitsuha's head as she watched Taki tap aroud on his phone, attaching and sending the picture to her. She took off the Magikarp and crept up behind him. Suddenly leaping up (' _Taki is tall, after all'_ ), she pulled the Magikarp over his head.

"Surprise!" she giggled.

Taki stumbled around a little. "Whoa, what happened?" He pushed the hat up so that it wasn't covering his eyes. "Oh, hey Mitsuha. Do you like my new taste in fashion?" He grinned unapologetically, pointing to the Magikarp.

"As a professional," she replied loftily. "I do approve."

She burst out in laughter when he cheekily tipped the Magikarp. "Your approval's all I need."

* * *

There were only 15 minutes to closing, so they thought it best to end with cotton candy. He was sitting next to her, close enough so that their shoulders were touching. It was a nice feeling, she had to admit.

"How many tents do you think we had left?" Taki asked in between bites of the fluffy mess.

"Too many," Mitsuha responded, gesturing with her stick of cotton candy towards the far end of the festival. "There's still quite a few over there. And the festival ends tonight, so..." Her voice trailed off with a sigh. There wasn't any real reason for her to be upset, but she _was_. It wasn't everyday that she could experience the festival she so dearly missed.

"Well, we can always come back next year."

Her gaze snapped to Taki, who was casually munching on his cotton candy. He noticed her staring at him and put it down. "What? Did I say something?"

"No, not at all! Sorry," Mitsuha apologized profusely, cheeks slightly red. "Just...surprised you're thinking that far ahead."

He smiled. "Why not? Things have been going pretty well so far, don't you think?"

She nodded furiously, still slightly embarrassed.

Shortly after, they were politely informed that the festival had closed. They exited the school in relative and slightly awkward silence.

' _Awkward for me, at least,'_ Mitsuha thought. Taki seemed completely at ease.

The fact that Taki was already thinking about _them_ and their relationship a year in advance weighed heavily on Mitsuha's mind. It hinted towards commitment. In other words, it hinted that _he was her boyfriend._

Unfortunately, hints weren't enough. She _had_ to be absolutely certain about it. ' _Why?'_ she wondered. After some thinking, she came to a conclusion. ' _I want Taki to be mine and I want to be his. Nothing more, nothing less.'_

The brand of certainty she sought wasn't cheap and she could only obtain it from Taki himself. All she had to do was ask him. Problem was, she had absolutely no idea what to ask!

' _Taki, am I your girlfriend?'_ She shook her head as if someone had said it to her. ' _Too direct!'_

 _'Taki, what do you think we are?'_ She shook her head again. ' _Too general...'_

' _Taki, do you like me?' ..._ She considered it for a brief moment before shaking her head again. ' _What am I, a middle schooler?! There's definitely a better way of asking!'_

She let out a gasp of surprise when she felt Taki's hands on her shoulders pull her back. She realized that in the middle of her brainstorming session, she had nearly walked onto oncoming traffic.

"Mitsuha, are you okay? You've been shaking, are you cold?" Taki was in front of her, hands still comfortingly on her shoulders. His eyes were wide with nothing but sincerity.

Mitsuha stared back at him, thinking a mile a minute. She could say no and keep walking. She could say yes and keep walking. Once she was back home, she could formulate a plan of attack. Saya-chin! Sayaka would know what to do, right?

' _But...when would I ask him? We had lots of fun at the festival, he'd be in a good mood right now. Is now the time?'_

"Mitsuha?"

She slowly wrapped her hands around his wrists and reluctantly removed his hands from her shoulders. Her hands slid down to link with his. ' _It's now or never.'_ She knew Taki was still staring at her with the same concern in his eyes, probably more. Her eyes darted around, from the stoplight, to the sidewalk, to the crack in the asphalt next to them. She wanted to look at anything but him.

But he had to know she was serious.

She looked up and gold met blue. "Taki," she started. ' _What to ask, what to ask?'_

' _Onee-chan, why are you so scared? Just ask him!'_

' _Mitsuha, what are you waiting for? Go get him!'_

 _'Honesty is the best policy, dear.'_

She imagined what Yotsuha, Sayaka, and her grandmother would say. And she decided to ask him straight out.

The words fell out of her mouth. "Am I your girlfriend?"

Taki opened his mouth and closed it. Then he opened it again. "Yes, I think we've crossed that line."

Mitsuha didn't hear the last bit of the sentence because she'd already tackled him at the first word. Her arms wrapped around Taki with all the strength that she had. She laughed with all the joy and happiness inside of her as he returned her embrace, pulling her even closer.

"YESSS!" she shouted. Tears of happiness flew out of her eyes onto his shoulder. She was no stranger to crying; sometimes she'd find herself crying just as she woke up for seemingly no reason. But tears of joy were a new experience, one that she would treasure.

They remained like that for a while before she finally detached herself from him. She smiled as she kept crying. "Hey, don't cry!" Taki chided. "You're making me feel bad!

"S-shut up! You're about to cry too!"

"You got me." They both laughed at that.

As the laughter faded away, Taki tenderly wiped the tears off of her cheeks. "Was that bothering you that much?" he asked kindly. "You should've told me."

"I was scared. I didn't know what I would've done if you said no," she whispered.

His hands returned to her shoulders. "Well, you don't have to worry about that." And with that, he pulled her in for another hug. She gladly returned it.

The stars twinkled brightly on the boyfriend and girlfriend, locked in their embrace. The minute hand of a nearby clock tower struck two tick marks after the eight, the hour hand almost reaching its destination of nine. The time was 8:42. Exactly nine years ago, Mitsuha had lost Itomori, lost part of herself, lost something that created a void in her.

' _But now, I've got Taki,'_ she thought, moving even closer.

' _I couldn't ever be happier.'_

* * *

 _ **IMPORTANT: One problem I ran into in the writing of this chapter was the cultural aspects of festivals. I've never been to Japan and the window I use to look through is very small. If you're either an expert of Japanese culture or live in Japan, both urban and rural, please shoot me a PM if you're interested in helping me with the writing of this fic!**_

 _ **ALSO LOOKING FOR BETA READERS! Please PM me if you're interested!  
**_

* * *

I actually considered just ending this chapter right after "Am I your girlfriend?" But I figured that since I haven't updated in nearly three months, I don't have the goodwill and trust to pull a cliffhanger off. Oh well. Maybe next time.

Lots to talk about here.

0: Sorry this took so long. First, the chapter itself is rather long but I also rewrote everything at least 3 times. I'm not sure why, I just could never be satisfied with what I wrote.

1: I read the English novelization of _Your Name_ and a translation of the Japanese novelization. I was very intrigued by what I read and may implement some of the concepts into this fic (the best example is how Taki describes that when he sees "grandma" when he's in Mitsuha's body, he sees memories that aren't his). On the other hand, I was disappointed that the novelization glossed over the same parts that the movie glossed over.

The two biggest complaints I have with _Your Name_ are two instances where the movie stepped back and let the music do the speaking. More specifically, the scenes while Zenzenzense and Nandemoniya are playing.

Zenzenzense starts right after the famous line(s): "In our dreams, that girl/guy and I are switching places?" It's where Taki and Mitsuha lay out ground rules (no touching, no showering, close your legs, etc).

This is when Taki falls in love with Mitsuha and Mitsuha falls in love with Taki. But we don't really see why or how that happens.

Nandemoniya starts playing after Taki hears Tessie and Saya in the cafe, about 5ish minutes from the end of the movie. At this part of the movie, the focus is on Taki and how he's been handling five years of feeling empty. WHAT ABOUT MITSUHA? SHE WENT 8 YEARS FEELING LIKE THAT?

I view fanfiction as a way to see parts of a work that the original author can't or won't show themselves. To that end, don't be surprised if my next fanfic is about Mitsuha's life directly after Tiamat falls and how she adjusts to Tokyo.

2: Can you see some of the emerging problems? One problem commonly touched upon in fanfics is convincing the friends/family that their relationship isn't just a spur of a moment thing, which I've got some of right in this chapter (Yotsuha so far, there's definitely more). But I've only found a few fics that touch upon jealousy/posessiveness, etc.

I envision Mitsuha as sort of the clingy/slightly posessive type of person. Her mother passed away when she was born, her father subsequently left, and she never had many friends. Once Taki comes into the picture, I don't think it'd be a stretch for Mitsuha to not want to let him go in any way. So she'll feel a bit insecure when Taki's other friends (not even necessarily female), show up and appear to pose a threat to her time with him.

3: The Magikarp hat was inspired by Pokemon Go.

 **4** **:** **I've set up an Ao3 account! The wait time was atrocious but if you prefer Ao3's layout, which I definitely do, head over there!** Both ffnet and Ao3 will be updated equally.

GiGitheHedgehog: Thanks! Unfortunately, I haven't. : (

MirrorFlower and DarkWind: I recovered from the concussion just a few weeks after it happened but by the time I was ready to write, I was already wrapped up in the school year. Thanks for your concern, and thanks for the feedback!

Akane and Minori: Happy to deliver! I'm mostly worried about if the readers from almost half a year back will return. Thanks for the feedback, I really appreciate it!

Pokeevee57: Thanks for letting me know! The pacing of a relationship is one of the key focuses of this fic, so I hope I'm doing a good job here!

Anon: You guessed it! I feel that there are enough clues for Taki and Mitsuha to find out exactly what had happened. It's up to them to tie all of them together. That may or may not involve a field trip to Itomori ;)

Thanks for the feedback, and I'll be sure to update as best as I can!

Wamomo: I'm glad you found it too! I'll do my best to update!

Cid Slayer: Awesome, glad to see you. If there's anything you think I can improve or want to say, please go ahead!

Frankluis25: I'm doing my best! :)

UnderTheUnderGround: I agree with you in that the movie did very little to represent Taki and Mitsuha as a couple. In fact, that's why I have a hard time reading some of the fanfics that immediately throw Taki and Mitsuha into a romantic relationship five seconds after the movie ends. Of course there's a special connection there but I don't think they'd dive right into making out right after they meet.

I've actually got a "meet Taki's friends" chapter planned. I did a chapter where Taki met Mitsuha's friends so it's only fair that it goes the other way around.

As for the Mitsuha remembering the body swapping part: I don't think that part will be for a while. I'm not sure how I'd continue writing after that reveal.

Thanks for the feedback. The fic has been praised multiple times for being realistic and I can't explain how happy I am to hear it. That was my vision for this fic and I'm so glad I'm delivering.

Guest: Thanks! Yes, that concussion was rather nasty. I don't plan on any repeats :D. I hope you enjoyed Your Name (I'm assuming you did if you're on here). It really is a spectacular movie. It's a shame there aren't more fanfics on the page.

5th Dimension: I'm glad you're enjoying it! I'm trying my best to keep the balance at 50-50 for relationship and plot. It seems that you're liking both parts, so I'm doing my job well!

The mystery aspects weren't too strong but they're going to start ramping up in a few chapters. I hope what I do meets your expectations.

Carpe Diem59: Thank you so much!

Nexus Infinity: I've thought about it and you're right; longer chapters are better. They're just a lot harder to make sometimes. But I'll do my best. Thanks for the feedback!

HPMarauder18: Thanks! Right now I think a meeting with Tsukasa, Takagi, and maybe Okudera is in order for Taki and Mitsuha, especially because they're now officially boyfriend/girlfriend. You have a Happy New Year's too!


	8. VIII: Confirmation

_Chapter VIII: Confirmation  
_

* * *

 _Okudera nodded. "Even we don't talk about it because the details are just so hazy. For some reason, I don't quite remember what we did, where we went...but what Takagi and I do remember," Okudera lowered her eyes and stared intently into Mitsuha's. "is that Taki was looking for a friend in Itomori. A friend that was a girl."_

* * *

 _Tuesday Oct 4th, 2022_

Mitsuha tiptoed into her quiet apartment. She closed the door slowly, made painfully aware from the squeaks that she'd yet again neglected to lubricate the hinges. She'd told Yotsuha that she'd be back at 9:00 PM after the festival and here she was, finally returning almost an hour later. It didn't take a supernatural vision to guess the kind of torment she'd suffer if caught.

' _And just what were you doing with Taki for an hour, Onee-chan?'_ Imaginary Yotsuha looked almost innocent, if it weren't for her devilish smirk.

She could answer that a couple of different ways. "Nothing" wasn't an incorrect answer; all Mitsuha did was walk with Taki in the streets of Tokyo, enjoying being in the presence of her boyfriend. ' _I still need to get used to that. I can say boyfriend now.'_

' _I probably should tell her that_ _we're official_ _now,'_ she took off her shoes and basked in the soothing feeling of the cool floor on her feet. ' _But she already thinks we are, so_ _what's the point in telling her?'_

Mitsuha walked towards the hallway to her room, stopping and cracking Yotsuha's door open to see if she was sleeping. ' _Good, she's asleep. Any awkward discussions can be saved for later.'_ She walked to the next room and pulled it shut silently, as she had done entering the apartment.

It was still only ten in the evening. The thought of sitting down and getting some work done before she turned in crossed her mind before a yawn blew it out of existence.

Today was truly a day she'd hold dear to her heart as long as she lived, but her grandmother had told her that only so much happiness can happen in one day before the gods balanced it out.

If happiness could be represented like water filling a tank, Mitsuha's tank would've crumpled from being at the bottom of an ocean.

She figured she didn't want to find out how the gods would balance _that_ out.

* * *

"Onee-chan, you're up early today."

Yotsuha stared at Mitsuha, who was humming as she waltzed around the kitchen, flipping a fried egg onto a plate. She could count the number of times Mitsuha had woken up before her on one hand and still have enough fingers to do a high five. What made today so special?

"I went to bed early yesterday," Mitsuha replied cheerily. She set down two plate of eggs and bacon. "Come on, eat!"

Yotsuha hesitantly moved into the chair and lowered herself into it. She meticulously inspected Mitsuha as her hands absentmindedly shoved food into her mouth. Her sister was acting strange today.

Yotsuha, with her magnanimous skills of observation, had known since her early childhood that Mitsuha could be _really_ weird sometimes. In fact, she remembered that she used to have a rule for whether Mitsuha would act weird for the day: if her sister was groping her boobs, she wouldn't be normal until the next morning.

Now that she thought about it, Yotsuha realized she hadn't caught Mitsuha in the act for quite some time. After Tiamat fell, there were more pressing issues than whether her sister was groping herself and she eventually forgot. Maybe she should ask...?

"Onee-chan," her sister put down the fork and looked at her. "...did you grope your boobs this morning?"

"What?" Mitsuha was the very image of confusion right now, face as blank as an essay that Yotsuha hadn't started yet. "No?"

"Oh." Yotsuha's cheeks burned at the thought of being wrong about her sister being weird, a topic she thought herself to be the #1 leading expert in. "Never mind then." Mitsuha shrugged and went back to eating.

Breakfast continued in silence with the occasional happy hum from Mitsuha. Yotsuha finished and put her plate in the sink and was about to go back to her room when Mitsuha spoke again. "Yotsuha, can you come here for a minute? There's something I want to tell you."

She sat down at the table again. Mitsuha was wringing her hands with nervous fervor, clearly excited about something.

"You know, Taki, right?" She started as soon as Yotsuha's butt hit the chair. She bobbed her head in response. How could she not, Mitsuha brought him up almost every other sentence. "Well after we went to the festival yesterday we sort of had a talk about things," the words just tumbled out of her mouth, causing Yotsuha's eyebrows to reach for the sky. "and, um...well...how best to say this?"

Yotsuha drummed her fingers on the table top, giving her sister plenty of time to form a coherent response. She figured Mitsuha must be trying to say something important and hearing it would be worth the tardy she'd probably get when she arrived to her class.

Mitsuha was silent for a little bit longer before she just sighed. She looked Yotsuha right in the eye and said, "It's official. I'm Taki's girlfriend now."

The silence that followed was uncomfortable. Yotsuha could tell that she was supposed to have some sort of reaction to that - why else would Mitsuha be staring her down like that?- but it felt like a multiple choice question with four good answers. What was she supposed to say?

She _should_ be happy for Mitsuha for finally finding a boyfriend – how did a high schooler have more dating experience than someone that's long since graduated from college? - but Yotsuha had her reservations about the boyfriend in question. She'd met him at Tessie and Sayaka's wedding and had ran into him in passing a couple of times after. Taki _seemed_ like a nice guy.

But Mitsuha was inexperienced when it came to relationships, something the older sister herself would readily admit. She knew Mitsuha would miss red flags that only experience could reveal. Worse yet was the possibility that Mitsuha _was_ aware of the warning signs and, romance starved as she was, chose to turn a blind eye. And there _were_ red flags.

They might've started calling themselves boyfriend/girlfriend now but the truth was that the relationship had already been at that point for a while now. She could say they'd been boyfriend/girlfriend since the first day, six months ago, that Mitsuha came back with a smile that reached past her eyes, claiming that she'd met someone special. In other words, it was a love at first sight kind of thing.

The problem with love at first sight was that people tended to hang on to the feelings they felt at first sight and ignored what came after, even and maybe especially if the "what comes after" didn't measure up to what came before. She'd fallen into that trap before.

She was afraid Mitsuha had also fallen into that trap.

But looking at how Mitsuha's eyes were shining bright all of the time now or how every one of her actions seemed to have a lift into it, looking at how much _happier_ Mitsuha was since meeting Taki...She couldn't bring herself to say it.

So, Yotsuha defaulted to the snarky response Mitsuha expected. "About time, onee-chan..."

It looked like she chose the right option, because she could see Mitsuha's slender shoulders expand as she relaxed and sighed in relief. "Well, I'm just saying it's official now!" Her older sister smiled.

She'd talk to Obaa-chan about this when she returned from her trip. She was as wise as they got. She'd know what to do.

* * *

 _Friday November 4th, 2022_

Mitsuha shivered as she stepped outside of her office building and let the door close behind her. It was starting to get chilly, something she lamented every year as the inevitable winter approached. She was dressed for autumn, donned in a pair of jeans with a pink cardigan casually pulled over a white blouse. The thin and bright fabric of her cardigan kept her relatively free of sweat in the hotter months but did little to shield her from the piercing wind of the colder ones.

"I think it's time to bring out the jackets," Mitsuha murmured as she clutched her purse to her chest in some attempt to block the wind. She kept her hold on it as she descended into the nearest subway station, only letting go to take out her wallet to pass through the ticket checking machines.

She sat down at the first bench she saw and took out her phone. It was Friday afternoon and she didn't need to be in the office at Saturday, so she figured she should spend some time with someone. To her pleasant surprise, Taki was feeling the same way.

 _"My friends want to meet you and it's probably about time I introduced you to them. What do you say to dinner at 6:30?"_

 _"Sure!"_ she typed out, smiling. ' _Are we meeting at the usual place?'_ The "usual place" was a Starbucks two blocks away from Suga Shrine. It was the cafe they'd gone to after their first meeting and naturally held great sentimental value to both of them.

' _Not this time, actually. We're all meeting up at another_ _cafe in Aoyama_ _called Leaves of Words_ _, I'll send you an address. See you soon!'_

* * *

This wasn't the first time she'd been at this cafe, even if she couldn't recall ever coming to it in the past...

It was the only thing she could think as she glanced around the cafe from her seat next to Taki. The cute puppies in baskets excitedly wagging their tails, the lattice pattern of the roof, the open windows on all three sides, even the curvature of the indentation of the spoon...It all seemed familiar.

Mitsuha picked up her spoon and moved it around, watching her distorted image change as it stared back at her. She couldn't help but laugh as a particular angle enlarged her nose to a ridiculous size.

"I have to say, the spoon doesn't flatter you very much."

"You think?" Mitsuha responded, turning the spoon so that Taki was the one in the reflection. Surprisingly enough, he didn't look too bad. "I think you look really good in it."

Taki smugly puffed out his chest. "When don't I look good?"

"Maybe when I turn the spoon around," Mitsuha flipped the spoon and immediately burst out into laughter when she saw the results. Taki's reflection was little more than two stretched eyes and a small oval for his face.

"Oh jeez...I look disgusting." he lamented.

"I have to agree with you there, Taki-kun." A voice from behind them said.

They both turned around to see a pretty brunette in her late 20s standing before them. Her lips were curved upwards in an amused smile.

This wasn't the first time she'd seen this woman, just as this wasn't the first time she'd been at this cafe. She recognized the slim figure and twinkling eyes, but like the cafe, she had no reason to recognize this woman.

"Okudera-senpai!" Taki stood up and gave her a quick embrace. "It's so good to see you!" he continued when they separated.

"It's good to see you too, Taki-kun. But how many times do I have to tell you not to call me Senpai anymore?" She wagged her finger at him as a mother might when scolding her child.

"Sorry, sorry...force of habit."

Okudera sighed an exaggerated exhalation of disappointment and turned her attention to Mitsuha. "He's hopeless, isn't he?"

"He's something else, that's for sure," Mitsuha replied, standing up to offer the older woman her hand. "My name's Miyamizu Mitsuha. It's a pleasure to meet you, Okudera-san."

"I'm glad to meet you too." Okudera said, shaking her hand. "No need to be so formal. Feel free to call me Miki." She winked.

Mitsuha could already tell that she'd like Okudera. "Okay, Miki. Call me Mitsuha," she replied, winking back.

"Dang, Okudera-senpai. Took three weeks for her to let me use her first name. You're as smooth as ever," Taki complained.

"Aww, is Taki-chan jealous?" Okudera put her arm around Mitsuha's shoulder and pulled her in. "I don't know, Taki, she really is beautiful...I might have to take her from you!"

"I'd like to see you try," Taki retorted. "Mitsuha, who would you rather be with?"

Now both of them were staring at her, telepathically communicating "pick me!" with their eyes. Mitsuha made a big show of appearing to be deep in thought.

"After much consideration, I've come to my decision," she finally said after letting the suspense grow for a little bit. "Sorry, Taki, but Miki's got an irresistable charm to her..."

"I thought we were going to meet Taki and his girlfriend, not Miki-san and her girlfriend!"

Their joke was interrupted by a serious looking dark haired man with glasses and a goofy looking brown haired man without glasses. And yet again, something within her felt familiarity with these men that she'd never seen before. It was all very peculiar.

"Tsukasa, Takagi!" Taki exclaimed. The other two men responded with some form of "what's up, Taki," before giving each other a cross between a high five and a handshake.

"So, is this the Miyamizu-san that we've been told about?" Tsukasa asked.

"Yup, although she might be with Okudera-senpai now..." Taki grumbled.

"So Miki-san will have a husband and a girlfriend?" Takagi asked, his expression serious as stone.

"Huh? A husband?" Mitsuha questioned. She glanced at the hand hanging off her shoulder and saw the blue and white sparkles of a wedding ring. "Oh no, a husband," she moaned, stepping back from Okudera and wiping away a fake tear. "We can't be together, Miki."

"What a tragedy," Taki said cheerfully. "So anyway, now that I've got my girlfriend back, I'd like to introduce you all to her. Tsukasa, Takagi, this is Mitsuha Miyamizu. Mitsuha, these are my friends Tsukasa and Takagi."

"Hi! Taki's told me about how you all have been friends since middle school. It's nice to meet you!" Mitsuha greeted them. She shook each of their hands. "You can call me Mitsuha."

"Nice to meet you too, Mitsuha," Takagi responded with a toothy grin. "Call me Takagi."

"It's a pleasure to finally meet you, Mitsuha," Tskuasa responded more formally but still in a friendly manner nonetheless. "Tsukasa's fine."

"Now that we're here, we should order something!" Okudera suggested. Everyone murmured their assent and took their seats around a wooden table. Mitsuha sat down next to Okudera and Taki sat down on the other side. Tsukasa and Takagi filled the other two seats.

"So, what would you recommend?" Mitsuha asked Taki, flipping through the menu. The first few pages were pancakes of all different varieties, some of which she'd never heard of before. She'd never eaten a pancake with pineapples and chocolate syrup, but it still sounded delicious...

"I actually don't recognize a lot of these," Taki responded, hunched intently over the menu. "Has it really been that long since I was last here?"

"I think the last time we came here regularly was probably high school," Tsukasa answered.

"Third year in high school," Takagi chortled, grin goofier than ever. "not Taki's best year."

Taki sighed, giving Takagi a pointed glare. "How many years ago was that? Eight? Nine?"

"It just goes to show how memorable you were, Taki." Taki's glare turned to Tsukasa, who casually pushed up his glasses.

"Oh, is that when Taki started acting cute some of the time?" Okudera joined in, only to shrink back slightly when Taki turned on her.

"What was Taki like in high school?" Mitsuha asked, scooting herself forward in her chair. She was deeply interested in hearing about who her boyfriend was before she met him, and who better to ask than his closest friends?

"Not you too, Mitsuha..." Taki groaned.

"It wasn't _all_ of high school," Takagi stated in a lofty tone, clearly enjoying seeing his friend's embarrassment. "I think it was really only during the 3rd quarter of our 3rd year. Before that, he was his normal, prickly self."

"But how was he different then?" She pressed for more information.

"It was really weird," Tsukasa mused, scratching his chin. "but the best way to put it is that he seemed to be a different person a couple of days a week. Outside of those days, he was perfectly normal."

She relaxed, letting her back hit the chair as she digested what she'd just been told. Most of it, she already knew; Taki had told her that he'd acted strangely in high school, just as she had.

' _What he didn't mention was that it happened during his third year,'_ Mitsuha thought amidst Taki insisting that Tsukasa and Takagi were exaggerating and Tsukasa and Takagi insisting that they weren't.' _and I wish he had, because_ _apparently_ _I was weird my third year as well.'_

She thought about the implications of having similar odd behavior patterns in the same year before it hit her: it wasn't the same year.

Mitsuha slapped her hand to her forehead as she realized that Taki's third year in high school was three years after her third year in high school. She had forgotten, even with all of Sayaka's embarrassing teasing of her being a cougar, that Taki was three years younger than her.

' _Maybe it's just a stress thing that comes_ _with high schoolers when they're about to finish.'_ She halfheartedly considered the idea _._ Regardless, she was no closer to solving the mystery.

"Are you ready to order?"

Her thoughts were interrupted by a waiter in a white dress shirt and blue-white striped pants and... ' _is that a beret? Interesting choice...'_

Taki, Tsukasa, and Takagi stopped their bickering and nodded. Tsukasa went first.

"I'd like to order the grilled chicken sandwich without..."

"Mitsuha, have a look at the dessert section." Taki murmured. She flipped through past the sandwiches and...!

Her eyes were blessed with a full page picture of a strawberry shortcake! Her mouth began to salivate as if the cake was sitting in front of her at this very moment, just ready to eat...It started with a strawberry pastry bottom, then a layer of red and white whipped cream! Another pastry layer, and then...a mound of whipped cream! Pink and red macarons formed a delicious circle on the circumference of the last pastry layer, a circle she'd _thoroughly_ enjoy eating. And finally, as if to frame this beautiful work of art, strawberries encircled the cake.

She _needed_ this.

"Taki, we're getting that!" Her tone left no room for discussion. Taki chuckled.

"I figured you'd say that. Let's split a burger and get the cake. We can split that as well, " this earned him a look of disbelief and horror. "What, you were thinking that you were gonna eat that whole thing?"

She looked at the cake, then back at him, then back at the cake. As reluctant as she was to admit it, Mitsuha acknowledged that she probably shouldn't eat it all herself. Not that she didn't want to. And it definitely wasn't that she _couldn't,_ she'd gladly take up that challenge any day.

' _But both me and Taki's birthdays are coming up, which means two cakes,'_ she lamented. ' _and that's all before Christmas and winter.'_ Winter, the time where she had to be especially careful of what she ate to keep the slim figure that she was proud of. It wouldn't do to start stuffing up now, like a bear preparing for hibernation.

"Fine," she relented.

"Can we have a cafe burger and a," Taki squinted to find out what he and Mitsuha were ordering and did a double take when he saw the name. "Portal to...the Strawberry Dimension?"

"Absolutely, sir." The waiter took their menus and walked off towards the kitchen.

"So...are we done making fun of Taki?" Tsukasa asked.

"For now. Mitsuha!" Okudera chirped. "Why don't you tell us about yourself?"

"Well..." Mitsuha started, feeling four pairs of eyes on her. "I don't really know where to start."

"How'd you meet this guy?" Tsukasa offered, poking Taki.

"We were both on trains and the trains went next to each other," Mitsuha explained. "and I saw him through the window and he saw me. And I don't know why, but I just felt like I knew him and had to meet him, so, uh...the next stop, I got out and ran all over Tokyo to find him."

To her surprise, Tsukasa, Takagi, and Okudera weren't fazed at all. They all exchanged glances at each other. For some odd reason, Okudera was smirking at the other two.

"Damn it," Tsukasa cursed, handing her a 10000 yen bill. Takagi handed over one, too.

"Thanks for the meal, guys!" Okudera grinned, pocketing the money she'd just received.

"What's this all about?" Taki asked, eyebrow raised.

"Oh, we just had a lovely bet where either they'd each pay me 10000 yen or I'd pay them 10000 yen," Okudera said, smiling radiantly. In contrast, Tsukasa and Takagi's faces were dark with despair.

"What was the bet on?" Mitsuha asked.

"You see, Taki told us the same story you did, about the whole seeing through the window and running around Shibuya to find each other. These two, " Okudera poked them on the side. "thought he was lying. I thought he was telling the truth."

"Wait, really? Then how do you guys think we met?" Taki demanded. Tsukasa and Takagi looked at each other.

"You tell him."

"No, you tell him."

Locked in a stalemate, both of them lowered their heads. "We thought you met through online dating."

Taki turned as red as a tomato. "NO, THAT'S NOT WHAT HAPPENED!"

Conversation after that was light and lively. Mitsuha learned that Takagi worked in accounting and Tsukasa was in medical school, in pursuit of a job as a surgeon. Okudera was a florist while she finished her last few years of graduate school.

"I planned on getting my bachelor's degree in Japanese history and then going into teaching, but I was just too fascinated to stop after four years," Okudera gushed, eyes twinkling with a little more light than usual. "so I work at a Flowerama to cover the bills. Oh!" she clapped her hands together. "I can get you and Taki-kun a discount for flowers when you finally tie the knot, so make sure to do it before I graduate, okay?"

It was hard to tell who blushed harder.

It wasn't until dessert was finally served that the topic finally returned to Taki.

"Wow."

"That's huge..."

"How much sugar do you think is in it?"

Tsukasa, Takagi, and Okudera all took turns admiring the Portal to the Strawberry Dimension as Mitsuha prepared her fork and knife.

"I've waited too long for this..." she said gleefully. She said a short prayer to her chlorestrol levels and commenced her assault, beginning at the very top. Mitsuha _inhaled_ the whipped cream without a second thought. If this was the portal to the Strawberry Dimension, she was the black hole that would wipe all of it out of existence.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Taki timidly pick up a strawberry, as if she'd bite off his hand if he dared touch the cake, _her cake_.

Well, she probably would _._ But it was just the strawberries. She didn't mind.

Mitsuha became increasingly trapped in the delightful cycle of slice, stab, chew, swallow. Her presence detached from where she was and gently floated away, like a balloon released to a warm summer breeze.

' _I guess this is what they mean by 'portal'...'_

Outside of her detached world, Taki chuckled as he continued watching her devour the cake. He set down his fork, giving up on the idea of splitting it with her. "I should've known this would happen," he sighed, but he didn't seem too bothered. "You think I'd be able to eat that as fast as she does?" he asked Tsukasa and Takagi.

They stared back at him. "Dude, you already have. In high school." Takagi stated.

"Wait, what?" Taki was slightly alarmed, because there was no way he would've forgotten eating something like this. Hell, there was no way he would've ordered a 25000 yen cake to begin with! "You're kidding, right?"

He waited for the serious expressions to compress into smirks and laughter, as they usually did whenever Tsukasa and Takagi played a prank on him. They'd all laugh and Taki would grumble about how they were beating a dead horse with the "acting weird during high school" joke and then they'd move on. But their expressions stayed as blank as a paper.

"At the risk of pissing you off again, it was when you were acting all weird," Tsukasa started, reentering the earlier topic albeit with a seriousness not previously present coloring his tone.

Taki groaned. "Not this again," he moaned as he sank down. He gestured for them to go on.

"You were _really_ weird that day – well I mean, you were weird a few days a week - but I mean _really_ weird. _"_

 _"_ Yeah, you came to school really bright and cheerful, saying something about acing a test," Takagi picked up the baton from Tsukasa. "But we hadn't had any exams recently then."

"..." Taki searched through his memories for such a day, but as with earlier, drew a blank.

"When we went to the cafe like we usually did, you bought that monster of a cake. When we asked what you were doing, you just smiled and said it was your 'cheat and celebration' day. The most odd part," Tsukasa leaned in. "is that you got mad about it the next day."

"And you didn't seem even mad at yourself for spending all that money," Takagi jumped in. "It kinda sounded like you were mad at somebody else?"

"...No recollection of any of this."

"That doesn't surprise me. You forgot where you worked and where our school was." Tsukasa countered.

Taki slumped forward, letting his forehead hit the table. It had always been a joke amongst Tsukasa, Takagi, and Okudera to remind him about the time when he'd spoken with a dialect some days and how he'd forgotten what his birthdate was and how he'd called them a couple of times asking how the subways worked despite being the city boy out of all them. But it'd never gone past that and Taki was able to brush it all off until the next inevitable session of teasing. Now that the humor was taken out and they were all serious, the sheer magnitude of _weird_ was just overwhelming.

Mitsuha had swallowed down the last strawberry and was going to apologize when she saw 3 serious looking people and her boyfriend taking a nap on the table.

"Is everything okay?" she asked hesitantly.

Okudera managed a smile. "Nothing to worry about, Mitsuha."

"Yeah," Taki said, straightening up. His back hit the chair and he slouched a little. "Nothing to worry about."

Conversation returned to as it was before the Portal to the Strawberry Dimension had been served. Tsukasa and Takagi seemed to have no issue overturning the serious mood and making it a lighthearted one with their banter. Okudera, although slightly subdued, seemed more than happy to join them. Mitsuha joined in, although she kept one eye on Taki. Taki laughed when a joke was told and answered anything asked of him, but he didn't participate much otherwise.

When the other three got locked into a discussion about a new, uprising tennis star, Mitsuha reached over and squeezed Taki's hand. "Are you alright?" she asked.

He squeezed back. "Yeah. They just gave me a lot to think about. That's all." Mitsuha narrowed her eyes. "Fine fine, let's talk about it. But not now."

She smiled, satisfied for the time being.

Taki became more active, which Tsukasa duly pointed out. "Wow, Taki, is someone holding your hand all it takes to cheer you up?"

Taki and Mitsuha glanced down at their still connected hands, and shrugged, as if to say "Got a problem?"

The evening went on. Mitsuha took careful note when Tsukasa and Okudera discussed the problems they'd run into when they'd first moved in with their husband, or fiance in Tsukasa's case.

"I didn't realize how many different ways a person could live," Tsukasa mused. "It was pretty weird to come home and find the snack cupboard arranged by most nutritional value to least nutritional value."

"Toilet seats," Okudera grumbled. "It took him a while to remember to put them back down after he did his business."

"I don't know how many times I accidentally grabbed her toothbrush and used it because she kept putting in the same spot!"

"He gets up so early that eventually I became an morning person. And THAT'S unforgivable."

Mitsuha wholeheartedly agreed with that assertion.

"So, what happened in the end?" she asked after they were done with their ranting.

Okudera shrugged. "We're still together, so it wasn't that bad. Eventually you take on some of their habits, they take on some of yours, and you go from there. Why? Worried that Taki might cause you trouble in the future?" she smirked.

"Ahaha...it might be a bit early to be thinking about that," Mitsuha deflected, weakly.

"Well, don't worry. Taki's easy to sway, aren't you now?"

"I think the word you're looking for is 'accommodating' and 'flexible'." Taki fired back at Okudera.

"Whatever floats your goat."

Taki, Tsukasa, and Takagi got into a silly argument about something. Mitsuha was feeling a little hot, so she excused herself to go outside. Leaning back on the handrail of the cafe's terrace, she stared at the golds and reds of twilight, _kataware-doki._ _S_ he remembered that from a Japanese lesson years ago. ' _I wonder what Yukino-sensei is up to nowadays?'_

"Mitsuha."

She straightened, gaze snapping down from the sky to the earth. Okudera held her hands up. "Sorry, didn't mean to startle. Mind if I join you?"

"Not at all."

Mitsuha went back to her earlier position as Okudera moved beside her. She mirrored Mitsuha and the two stood together, watching the dark blue gradually eat through the sky.

"I used to like him," Okudera said abruptly. Mitsuha tilted her head. "Taki," she clarified.

"Oh." Mitsuha responded. ' _What am I supposed to say to that?'_

The older woman chuckled. "Sorry, that probably wasn't the best way to approach the subject. Back in college, I worked at the same Italian restaurant Taki was a waiter at in his high school years. He always had a bit of a crush on me and found every excuse to talk."

Mitsuha fidgeted a little, not sure what the annoyance she was feeling stemmed from. It didn't make sense for her to be jealous over an infatuation that happened years ago, but here she was, being envious about hearing that Taki had liked someone in the past.

"We were friends and that's all I really saw him as. But my last year in college, his third year in high school, I saw him as something more. It all started this one day when he showed up to work late for his shift, got lots of orders wrong, and got yelled at by some jerk who was trying to get free food."

"Is this what Tsukasa and Takagi were talking about?"

Okudera nodded. "The same timeframe. I didn't see Taki daily like they did, but even I noticed that some days he was his old self, but other days he was just somebody else. The jerk that yelled at him slashed my dress. You know what he did? He sewed the slash together with a hedgehog."

Mitsuha's eyes widened. "Really?"

"Yup. You seem shocked."

"I am. It sounds like something I'd do, and...it's something my grandmother's done for me." she finished, hesitant to bring the Miyamizu matriarch into a discussion about Taki. "Sorry, that was random." she apologized. "It's just a silly coincidence."

She expcted her to agree and go on with whatever she was going to say but Okudera surprised her. "Actually, that's kinda where I was going with this."

"What?" Mitsuha's full attention was on Okudera now. ' _What could she mean by that?'_

"I know this sounds ridiculous, but I think you and Taki are connected somehow. I don't think it's just a silly coincidence."

Mitsuha's breath caught.

 _Finally_ there was someone other than Taki who thought there was a significance to how they met, someone who shared her suspicions that their recognition of each other wasn't just "love at first sight," someone who thought that there was more than met the eye, someone who didn't dismiss their successful relationship as good fortune and circumstance.

"Why do you say that?" Mitsuha breathed. She was _absolutely dying_ to know anything she could.

"One of the things I noticed are your speech mannerisms. You have a rural dialect, right? For some reason, Taki seemed to have a similar one on the days that he was different."

' _ **No dialect!** '_

Those words flashed at her from a phone. A phone that wasn't in her hand. Mitsuha blinked.

"Another thing I noticed was that he was a lot more forward and comfortable with physical contact on those days," Okudera continued, unaware of Mitsuha's disorientation.

' _ **Don't touch girls OR guys!'**_

 _'Where are these words coming from?'_

"But I think the thing that really got to me was our trip to Itomori."

"Taki mentioned this trip a couple of times but never really talked about it..." Mitsuha remembered.

Okudera nodded. "Even we don't talk about it because the details are just so hazy. For some reason, I don't quite remember what we did, where we went...but what Takagi and I do remember," Okudera lowered her eyes and stared intently into Mitsuha's. "is that Taki was looking for a friend in Itomori. A friend that was a girl."

* * *

"This was lots of fun. Let's do it again."

"Yeah," Mitsuha agreed with Tsukasa. "I'll even bring my friends. We'll make it a group date."

Tsukasa smiled. "Sounds good."

Okudera waved her hand in farewell. "Bye Taki!" He responded with a goodbye of his own and stepped off the train. Mitsuha moved to do the same until she felt something tugging at the sleeve of her cardigan. She turned around, expecting to see that it'd gotten caught on a seat, but saw Okudera instead.

"Think about what I said, okay? And text me if you have any questions." she said, voice low. Mitsuha nodded.

"Thanks, Miki. Bye!"

She stepped off the train onto Shinjuku platform. Shinjuku Station, where Taki exited and Mitsuha transferred. They were near the point where Mitsuha went left to the Fukutoshin line and Taki turned right to the exit.

She didn't want them to separate, though. What Okudera had said weighed heavily on her mind and it was something that she felt was worth discussing. And she'd always want to spend more time with Taki.

They reached the end of the hallway and Mitsuha lowered her head, expecting to hear Taki say, "Well, I go right here," like he usually did. But, to her surprise, she raised her head to find him looking absolutely reluctant to leave.

It was almost cute how the frustration had painted his face. The corners of his lips drooped down slightly, and his eyes were creased. Mitsuha found it hard to resist the urge to giggle.

"Hey, Taki," she said, opting not to laugh at him. He looked at her hopefully. "if you're not busy tomorrow...wanna come over?"

The frustration relaxed and untangled into relief. "Yeah, I do."

* * *

"Welcome back, Onee-cha- Taki-san?! What are you doing here?!"

Yotsuha had walked into her living room, expecting to find her beloved sister there. Not her beloved sister AND her beloved sister's abnormally tall boyfriend sitting on the couch and holding hands!

"Don't be rude, Yotsuha," Mitsuha scolded, sitting up straight. She'd been reclined against Taki, head rested on his shoulder and left hand intertwined with his right.

Taki waved with his left. "Nice to see you, Yotsuha."

The younger Miyamizu stared at them suspiciously, her mind adding up the situation and piecing together an explanation.

"Don't be too loud!" she finally ordered and, with a whip of her pigtails, spun around and stomped back to her room.

Cheeks slightly burning, Mitsuha reassumed the position she'd had before the disruptive force known as Yotsuha had swept in. "Just ignore her."

"Good idea."

Of course, Mitsuha had the foresight to realize that coming in at 10 in the evening with her boyfriend would probably result in some raised eyebrows and pointed innuendos from a certain younger Miyamizu. ' _Oh well. Nothing I can do about it.'_

Taki shifted slightly so that it wasn't just her head resting on him; now her back was fully propped up against his side. He let go with his right hand and wrapped his arm around her waist, drawing her closer. They stayed like that for a while. His warmth coupled with the large cake she'd eaten was quickly sending her to Dreamland but not quite arriving.

Mitsuha lazily floated between being sleep and awake for some time, having long forgotten why she'd even brought Taki over in the first place. In between changing clothes, fixing up a snack for herself and Taki, and Yotsuha, the idea of having an intense discussion about strange behavior in high school had completely slipped out of her short term memory.

"Hey, Mitsuha."

She tilted her head up a little to tell Taki "yes, I'm listening, but don't expect too much from me intellectually."

"What did you and Okudera-senpai talk about? You were out there for a while."

' _Oh, right, we needed to talk about that...'_

She considered for a very brief moment delaying this discussion for another time because _this feels so good._ But putting it off was really the same as pushing the snooze button on her alarm clock. The only results were 7 more minutes of restless and unsoothing sleep with the threat of annoying beeping looming over her and Yotsuha yelling at her to "hurry and wake the hell up already" from the next room.

Mitsuha slowly and very, _very_ reluctantly peeled herself off of Taki. She hugged herself, feeling cool air take the place of Taki's comfortable warmth. Figuring Taki was probably concerned that she was taking so long to answer what was a simple question, she started talking.

She explained how Okudera had found him to be completely different, just as Tsukasa and Takagi had, on certain days. How he'd stitched her skirt together, despite never having shown any ability in sewing. How he'd spoken with a rural dialect, even though he'd never stepped foot outside of Tokyo. How Okudera thought all of these were connected, not simply a coincidence.

He sat there and listened to all of it, not interrupting like he would've had it been the other guys speaking. She appreciated that.

"And the trip to Itomori:" Mitsuha finally got to what both she and Okudera thought to be the most vital part of all of this. "you were looking for a friend. A girl, actually."

"These are all things I've heard before," Taki murmured, resting his elbows onto his knees. "but I never took them as much more than a joke. Seeing how you've laid it all out, I think I agree with Okudera that this is all connected in some way."

Mitsuha cheered silently. But..."What about the Itomori trip?"

Taki remained hunched over, deep in thought. After a little while, he straightened with a sigh. "I don't know. Takagi didn't go with us, but he remembers he was told that I was going on a trip to find _her_ but I don't know who _her_ was. And neither did any of them. Even I woke up on some mountain, having no idea why I was there. So eventually, I forgot. And we never really talked about it."

She mulled over this.

"Could it have been me that you were searching for?" she finally asked. Of course, the obvious answer was no, it didn't make any sense. ' _But this situation is making less and less sense the more we think about it, so why not?'_

"Could've been, but could've been any other girl there. Not like I knew anyone from Itomori. But, weren't you already in Tokyo by that time?"

"...Yes."

She berated herself for having even asked the question.

They both sat in silence, thinking as hard as they could. But Mitsuha already was tired and full and Taki was already a little rattled by the day's events. It didn't take long for them to throw in the towel.

"I can't think of anything," Taki gave up first. Mitsuha hummed her agreement.

Hoping that the mood from earlier hadn't been ruined, Mitsuha scooted closer to him, hoping he'd take the hint without her having to say anything. Thankfully, he did and pulled her to him, arm comfortably wrapped around waist just as it had before. She sensed an unspoken agreement to learn more before continuing the discussion.

But for now...some sleep sounded just fine to her...

She wasn't sure what he dreamed of, or if he even fell asleep, but she certainly did. She dreamed of forever being with the warmth that surrounded and protected her. Just as it did now.

* * *

Early morning light streamed through the windows of the Miyamizu residence. A flock of pidgeons headed south for refuge from the cold winter that was settling in Tokyo squawked, keeping their V formation while they flew. Otherwise, it was as silent as could be.

It's the silence that Yotsuha woke up to. She slipped out of her bed and checked the time. It read 5:00. That wasn't a surprise. She had gone to bed rather early, hoping to sleep through the noises of whatever _activities_ Taki and Mitsuha decided to partake in.

She exited her room quietly and glanced into Mitsuha's room as she walked down the hallway to get a drink from the kitchen. _She wasn't on the bed, sleeping like a rock as she usually did._

Having a bad feeling about the situation, Yotsuha crept into the kitchen, her light weight allowing no floodboards to creak under her. Her sister wasn't there, either.

She rounded the corner from the kitchen into the living room and-

"TAKI? WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU STILL DOING HERE?"

* * *

 **Author's Notes:**

I set up a Twitter! Feel free to tweet me with questions about _Remembering You_ or _Your Name_ connectedbyfate. I find that I have an easier time talking about _Remembering You_ than actually writing it.

Happy 1 year _Remembering You_ anniversary, everybody! Thanks for sticking with me for this long! You don't know how much it means to me!

Many thanks to AkaneMinoriFF and 5th Dimension for kindly offering their suggestions and critique to this chapter! This is a dialogue heavy chapter and things can go very wrong with dialogue heavy chapters if not carefully executed, so I'm thankful for their help and critique!

-2: This is the second chapter in a row of 5k+ words. Do you guys prefer these longer chapters or would you rather that I updated more frequently? Maybe I should partition these longer chapters into more than one parts? Let me know what you think.

-1: Sorry this took so long! I had finals in between the last chapter along with a band tour and it was pretty exhausting. I also got carried away with my next fanfic idea and instead of just staying on the planning phase, I actually wrote a full chapter.

The fanfic revolves around the idea that Taki and Mitsuha switched bodies 10 times, not counting the final day of switching. Final day is well documented on Taki's side and rather boring on Mitsuha's side (she was knocked out for most of it). 10/11 chapters, each one's a day. I've looked around and it seems that no one else has attempted it yet.

I don't know if I should release what I've got just yet, though. Looking at how sporadically I update _Remembering You,_ I'm not sure how well I'd be able to handle the second fic (does _10 Days_ sound too generic? Maybe _10 Days to Fall in Love_?).

I'll have to think about it. Right now, my plans regarding _Your Name_ are like this:

1: A fic concerned with how Mitsuha deals with 8 years in Tokyo, feeling lonely and like she's always been searching for someone, something. This fic, unlike _Remembering You,_ would be written in Mitsuha's perspective, so I'm looking forward to thinking like Mitsuha.

2: The "10 Days to Fall in Love" idea mentioned earlier. Nobody else seems to have done this. There was a fic that got started called "Halcyon Days" but the author hasn't updated for a long while.

3: Whatever AUs I can think of! There are some really great ones available right now, such as _Beginnings_ or _My Heart Starts With You._ I'd highly suggest having a read!

But once I've finished all of that, that might be it for my fanfiction writing in _Your Name._ I don't know what else I'd write at that point.

...Hopefully _Your Name 2_ comes along and gives me fresh new ideas.

1: I looked at the statistics of my fanfic and I was initially disappointed to see that I had 0 readers from Japan. But doesn't that mean the Japanese have their own fanfiction site? Hmmm...

2: I read _Another Side:Earthbound_ (short description: it's a novel that mostly takes place during the movie and takes the perspectives of Taki, Yotsuha, Tessie, and Mitsuha's dad when it comes to Mitsuha's body switching). Wow. Incredible read. I think it's a must read for any fans of _Your Name_ and I think all fanfiction writers for _Your Name_ should be legally mandated to read it before they submit anything. I'd definitely recommend it, it's only 7 dollars (USD) on the iTunes store.

MirrorFlower and DarkWind: Wow, I'm really touched! I've heard of many people crying after seeing _Your Name_ but never did I think that I would be able to elicit such a reaction from people with my own work. Thank you for the review!

Akane Minori: Thank you! I really enjoy developing the relationship and I'm glad you are too!

Actually, about what you said about living someone else's life: if you want more insight, I'd suggest picking up _Another Side: Earthbound._ The first chapter is about how Taki handles being Mitsuha and what you said in your review lines up with the book pretty well.

5th Dimension: Thanks! I don't know how many times I wrote and rewrote this chapter so I'm glad to hear it worked out in the end!

Thomas: Thanks! Glad to hear you're enjoying it and I'd always love to hear from old readers.

Thanks for letting me know that you're interested in beta-reading. Unfortunately, your email didn't show up (I suspect it was blocked by the filters). Right now, I have two beta readers and I think that's a good amount, but I'll definitely have you on my mind if I ever need more! Thanks again!

PPNACHILO: Thank you!

AscendingLegend: Yeah, you're totally right. I don't even know why I wrote that, it doesn't make sense for Mitsuha to think that. I'll probably change that or take it out. Hopefully it doesn't change too much going forward. Thanks for letting me know and thanks for the feedback!

Inthedepthofwinter: It's probably because I updated so infrequently lol, some of the other fanfics written around the time I published the first chapter of _Remembering You_ are on Page 3 of the archive, where most people don't go. Regardless, I'm glad you've read _Remembering You_ and even more glad that you're enjoying it!

Pacing was probably one of the key things for me when I made this story, so I'm very glad that you think I'm doing a good job with it.

I think I've reached around 60 percent completion here. Obviously it's difficult to quantify plot, but especially with this chapter, things are going to start moving forward at a rather quick pace. Don't worry, though, I'll think of date scenes and write them out as I go.

Thanks again for the feedback, and I hope you keep enjoying _Remembering You!_

AdvanceWarsAddict: Awesome, I hope your first viewing of _Your Name_ was as touching and emotional as many other people's first viewing was. I've rewatched the movie quite a bit, but the my first experience was by far the most moving.

No plans at all to abandon this fic! I finish what I start!

Gohst of Eden: Wow, that sounds serious...Glad I could help! Thanks for the feedback!


	9. IX: Birthday

December 1st, 2022

Thursday

* * *

Mitsuha woke up unusually early. Normally, this meant rolling over and getting a couple more precious minutes of slumber until she was inevitably roused by her nosy younger sister. Today, though, everything from her hair down to her toes gleefully tingled, making it impossible to laze around in bed.

It was her birthday today.

 _Unfortunately,_ her birthday didn't quite make the cut for being a national holiday, so she still had to go to work. She got dressed as she always did, applied a little bit of makeup (Taki always insisted she didn't need any), and finished by wrapping her _kumihimo_ into a ribbon on the back of her head. A twist of her head this way, then that, just to make sure everything looked alright...

Being both the next in line to head the Miyamizu shrine and the daughter of the mayor meant that her actions had been meticulously scrutinized. Living in a town that barely reached 1500 meant that rumors spread to everybody in the town. These two facts combined had given Mitsuha something of a perfectionist obsession. Everything had to be just right, whether it be appearance, grades, demeanor. When she brought this up with her friends, they dismissed it. ' _It's not a bad thing to strive for perfection,'_ she remembered Saya-chin saying, and then changing the topic. Thinking back on it, she wished she had had the strength to say, ' _It's one thing to strive for perfection. It's another to obsess over it.'_

Being only one among the millions of people in Tokyo provided her an anonymity that mitigated her obsession, but only partially and not to what were healthy levels. Even the distractions of the largest metropolis in the world couldn't stop the nagging in the back of her head that something about her wasn't complete.

No, it was Taki that had finally gotten her to not only accept herself, but even feel good about who she was. Taki, who had barely blinked when she showed up to a date almost 20 minutes late. Taki, who said she looked beautiful no matter how disheveled and hurried she thought she looked. Taki, who never complained when she was moody and let her rant if that's what she wanted or stayed silent and let her go on if that's what she wanted. He _accepted_ her – no, a lot more than just accepted. Something bordering on...love.

She was sure that if she told him any of that, if she somehow worked up the courage and thanked him for all he did, he'd just scratch the back of his head and say "no need to thank me" and then go back to what they were doing. He was so kind, the idea that she owed him anything, even her thanks, wouldn't even register.

That's why she'd have to turn to _other_ methods to show her gratitude. If words didn't work, there were always actions. And the perfect opportunity had presented itself...

Deciding that she looked fine, Mitsuha picked up her phone and turned it on. ' _Taki: Happy Birthday, Mitsuha!'_ And underneath that: ' _Saturday: Surprise birthday party for Taki!'_

She smiled. She'd make it the best birthday party he'd ever have.

* * *

 **Author's Notes:**

I posted this just as proof that I'm not dead and I haven't stopped working, sorry that it's so short for such a long time of no updates. I've just been very busy despite it being summer and haven't found much time to work on _Remembering You._ But I'm fully committed to getting this finished and maybe giving my poor soul some _Your Name_ closure.

Follow me on twitter connectedbyfate! Feel free to ask me my thoughts on anything _Your Name_ or _Remembering You!_

0: Sorry this has taken so long. The last quarter of school is always just chaotic for me, with sports and academics both reaching their peak at about the same time. Lots of time spent on both, not much time for writing.

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I decided to take a new approach to reviewer responses. I've had more reviews coming than ever, so I just wanted to preface this with a universal thank you to everyone that reviewed instead of making my responses bloaty with thank yous. I love hearing from you guys and hope to keep hearing from all of you moving forward!

Tertius711: I don't know, 10 Days sounds a bit generic. We'll see!

Dangstaboy: Bravery wasn't much of an issue when I first published _Remembering You,_ because this was at a time where there were very few fanfics doing a sequel. By default, _Remembering You_ would be good because there was nothing else to compare it against. It's a bit different from now. But thank you for the compliment regardless!

Taki's POV - You're right, I have almost nothing from Taki's POV. Reason for that is, I relate to Mitsuha a lot more than I do to Taki. Not that I don't love both characters. But I grew up (and I guess I'm still growing up) in a high standards environment, so I feel that I can articulate those ideas better (which you've seen in this chapter). Also, I don't know if I've said this but I'm a girl, so there's that too! But yeah, I might make an attempt to talk from Taki's POV. We'll see!

MirrorFlower and DarkWind: I really appreciate that you've been reviewing since pretty much the beginning. Thanks for sticking with me!

Revenant1989: Post Amazing Movie Depression (PAMD) should be a valid excuse to not go to school/work. It's really that serious!

I absolutely know what you mean. I love _Your Name_ with all my heart, but the ending left me wanting more. So I wrote what I wanted to see to cure my PAMD and that of others, because _Your Name_ was just that awesome.

Thanks for the offer! I'm truly grateful to have several Japanese residents inform me about Japanese culture. I truly believe it'll enhance _Remembering You_ in the chapters to come.

Pandu: Thank you! Feel free to shoot AU ideas at me any time!

TimeShifter: Yes, I always plan to continue _Remembering You._ If for some reason I don't, then I'll express so and probably leave whatever notes I have to another author so that they can pick up the torch and finish it.

Right, it's absolutely not necessary for their relationship to find out the truth. But seeing how Taki went back in time to save Mitsuha, I feel like it'll at least always be in the back of their heads.

GiGiTheHedgeHog: Thanks for the correction, was unaware of that!

Right, that's my concern too: that readers eventually forget about the story. I'll be pushing updates out a bit more frequently.

AscendingLegend: I think so, too!

My immediate plan for what's next (for reference, _Remembering You_ is currently at the beginning of the end. Still a good amount left to do, but the end is in sight) is Mitsuha's life in Tokyo. How she handles high school, college, and a couple of her years in the workplace, etc. It might as well be an AU since we don't really know how Mitsuha lives those years.

TheCartoonFanatic01: Thanks for giving my fanfic a try!

Romance/Mystery – I probably should mark this as a mystery fic, as I feel that's just as much part of the fic as the romance. To be honest with you, the mystery shouldn't really impact the romance – I wrote that Mitsuha would like to get to the truth, but that she wouldn't be bothered if she never did – because they are attracted to each other regardless. Even if they never do find out about the body switching, the innate recognition was already there and it's blossomed into the relationship they have now.

Mitsuha's father and grandmother – Oh, I didn't even think about Mitsuha's father. I suppose he is a clue of sorts. Thanks, I'll keep that in mind. As for Mitsuha's grandmother...sorry to disappoint, but my plans for her are to either not include her at all in the story at all or include her at the very end/epilogue if I do one of those. The reason for that is because she could solve the mystery right away by telling Mitsuha that about the Miyamizu dreams and that'd be the end right there. Sorry to disappoint :/


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